


One Week of Sleepless Nights

by kibombs



Category: K-pop, SHINee
Genre: Band Fic, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-20 05:07:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 41,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22943680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kibombs/pseuds/kibombs
Summary: After watching Kibum's latest hit movie, Taemin finds himself unable to sleep at night. He becomes overwhelmed by his own memories, and accidentally causes his life to lead in a new direction... He can only hope Kibum is ready.
Relationships: Kim Kibum | Key/Lee Taemin
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40
Collections: Winter of SHINee





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt Summary:**   
>  _A goes to see B's movie/musical in which B has a steamy kiss scene. Later on, A can't get the image of B being a good kisser out of their mind and begins to wonder if they can take their relationship to the next level._
> 
> * * *
> 
> Hello everyone, before you all take a dive into this work, I would like to take same time to throw out two 'disclaimers'. First of, as a bit of a spoiler, this fic's pairing is ONLY taekey, but there is past implication of jongkey as well as mention of some jongtae (or jongtaekey in general). I am only mentioning this as a forewarning for those who don't expect it. Secondly, I would just like to mention that this work takes place in the near future, and as a band!fic I wrote it to seem as "real" as possible. I describe real life canon as best as I can while I mix it with the fiction of my story.
> 
> Thank you for taking your time to read and please enjoy!
> 
> -R

**Part One**

* * *

_**One.** _

The night stretches on as the moon beams high above the dark sky, hardly dotted with stars due to the bright city lights of Seoul. Taemin lays in bed, restless for about 3 hours now, practically cursing himself for deciding to stay up late to watch a long movie on his laptop (his brain is too active now to properly rest). He stares at his window with a worried gaze, the curtains are wide open which only welcome the moon’s bright light into his room—he thinks closing the curtain might help him sleep but only pouts to himself when he realizes he’s too lazy to get out of bed. He can’t remember the last time he slept with a night light on, but this surely reminded him of those times... In a new attempt to doze off, he closes his eyes, slows his breathing, and (for the fourth time) waits for sleep to greet him.

Taemin is far from total darkness when his eyes are closed however, the bright light coming through the window causes him to be met with grey and static instead... He sighs yet again when the grey starts to form into something very shortly after, still unable to sleep and nowhere near dreaming as the static gathers in his brain to create a single image. He groans when he realizes the image is forming into a pair of lips, a certain pair of lips he’s been familiar with most of his life and the same pair that have been trying to cloud his mind this night… Annoyed and wanting to make the image go away, Taemin only squeezes his eyes harder and tosses his comforter over his head in a final attempt to shut out the light, to finally stop his mind from forming these unwanted thoughts; to finally get his well deserved sleep.

He fails though, as the moment he is met with his so wanted darkness, the image in his brain finally becomes one hundred percent clear and morphs into a different scene…Taemin braces himself as he surrenders to his overactive brain, and watches the scene before him.

Kibum is standing in front of him, but faces a woman. They’re talking to each other, but for some reason Taemin doesn’t care to listen and keeps his focus on Kibum, who only steps closer to the woman very dramatically before finally lunging forward and pressing his pouty (and delicious) lips deep and hard against her own… They kiss passionately, and the moment Taemin realizes he’s watching Kibum’s tongue dart out of his mouth and into her’s with gaping lips, he sits up immediately from under his covers and tugs at his hair.

“It’s so damn hot in this room, I can’t stand this!” He practically yells while kicking off all his covers to the floor, totally resembling a 5 year old’s tantrum and only making himself hotter. He looks to the window right after and decides to jump up and close his curtain, “And I can’t stand this window!” He finally closes the curtain with a harsh tug, but for some reason the moment he does a memory triggers in his brain... Suddenly his ‘night light’ was gone, just like when Kibum first started turning Taemin’s personal night light off in the dorm, or even later on in their shared hotel rooms. He stopped sleeping with a night light because of Kibum…

“Why am I thinking about him?” Taemin asks himself while biting his lip and standing defeated, almost embarrassed as he knows Kibum is only occupying his brain from just watching a recent movie he starred in. If Taemin had known that movie would’ve affected him this way, well… he probably wouldn’t have watched it. He slowly walks away from his window, and back into bed flustered and annoyed. There’s no way he can sleep now, he knows this as he continues to reminisce about his old memories. His precious night light, the one all the members would complain about… and later on, the lips that would comfort him in the dark instead, with sweet and understanding words and kisses to the forehead. He remembers suddenly now, how Kibum was there for him in a time he felt practically helpless and alone...

It is true that SHINee is known to be a pretty close-knit group, but it’s also a known fact that they weren’t always. Especially around the time of their debut, they simply only tolerated each other half the time for the sake of their new group, for the sake of the career they had trained their youth away for… At first, they saw each other more like classmates who shared a room; They would have a good time with each other most of the time out of common decency and their own sanity, but the peace would be broken more than half the time—usually by petty arguments over pet peeves or something as densely related. Taemin’s old night light was certainly an issue during the beginning stages of the group, by the time A.Mi.Go was released it seemed like Jonghyun was the one who was more irritated with it than the rest. He would go on about how the light was starting to disrupt his sleep, then Minho would begin to voice his annoyance with it as well, followed by Jinki’s silence accompanied by his own sympathetic stares. Kibum would be the one who would unplug the light after the fights, in a sudden movement without saying a word, and hide it under his pillow… No one ever stopped him.

Taemin remembers again, how that whole ordeal caused him so much stress at the age of 14… how it almost fed into his anxiety over his new and very young life as an idol. But he also feels suddenly ashamed at the fact he was a teenager and still sleeping with a night light. He understands the member’s annoyance with it too, especially… Just now he was losing his sleep thanks to his active mind and the moon’s light, the old fear he used to feel in the dark is far gone, and so was his anxiety of being an idol. Now, Taemin lies in the dark without a problem, without having to cry over being forced to sleep in the dark after a nasty fight with his group, without doubting whether training to be an idol was the best decision for him or not, without missing his family dearly…without Kibum holding him tight.

The room remains dead silent and in total darkness as Taemin continues to think back… He thinks back to how Kibum helped him get over his fear of the dark, how he helped him get over his anxieties, and how he did it simply by crawling by his side anytime he felt scared. He wonders if Kibum would purposely turn off his night light with the intention to help comfort him after (aside from appeasing the member’s wishes); he also wonders if Kibum only ever thought of comforting him because he hated to see Taemin cry… Taemin squeezes his eyes shut as he turns over in order to let Kibum flood his mind even more. More old images of him start to cloud his brain quickly, Taemin can almost feel how Kibum would wrap his thicker arms around his small ones… He can still hear the raspiness of his voice, _“You’ll be okay with me, Taeminnie.”_ Taemin sighs, he misses Kibum’s soft touches, he misses breathing him in when they were close in bed… He misses waking up by his side…

_The movie…_

Suddenly, innocent memories burst into flames as he’s reminded of his culprit. Kibum’s lips come back to torture Taemin’s memories as he begins to reminisce about all those soft touches that turned into sweet kisses years later, and when the sweet kisses slowly turned into heated touches and... Taemin can feel himself get hot and bothered again, but he continues with his eyes shut nonetheless; he lets himself feel it this time, because now he’s started to realize how much he really misses Kibum… How much he actually wants to reach over and kiss him again, feel him all over in the dark, explore his body and trying to keep quiet for the sake of never getting caught. All the memories of the times they shared a bed, Taemin realizes how special they all were now… and now he longs for them all over again. He steadies his breathing the more and more he plummets into his thoughts, overflowing memories coming at him at high speed. All his focus is solely on one thing: longing emotions, and empty feelings, all with the man Kim Kibum behind it all…

Taemin wakes the next morning uncomfortable with himself, all thanks to a giant wet stain on his boxers. He doesn’t remember falling asleep—or what he dreamt about.

**. . .**

_Taemin sniffles to himself as he tries to contain his sobbing from being outspoken. He’s not sure how long he’s been crying now, but the tears haven’t stopped since the moment he saw Kibum walk up to his night light and unplug it from the wall. Jonghyun was overjoyed, and now Taemin can hear him snore peacefully—He wishes that was him, but instead he lies in bed suffering, praying he was home in his own bed, in a room that is ONLY his and with his night light._

_He feels annoyed that the members don’t seem to care enough over the fact that he is afraid of the dark, and that it feeds his anxiety of missing home… Though, they did tolerate it for a long time…_

_“Why can’t they just leave me be?” Taemin pouts to himself quietly and proceeds to wipe his tears, turning away to face the slightly open window to his left. However, the moment he turns, he’s startled. Immediately Taemin feels hands cover his mouth and a slight ‘shush’._

_“It’s just me, Key hyung.” Kibum drops his hand quickly after as if there should be no surprise, and continues, “Don’t cry Taeminnie, are you scared?”. Taemin only stares back at him, eyes wide to try to see him better in the dark but also because he’s unsure of what to say; he nods his head nonetheless hoping Kibum could see it._

_“Is there anything I can do to help you?”_

_Taemin is in a bit of disbelief now, but immediately speaks out with a ‘yes’ in a desperate attempt for help anyway. He was tired of crying, and this was the fourth night in the dark. Maybe Kibum can finally help._

_“Okay well, move over I guess,” Kibum lifts Taemin’s blankets, and funny enough it was as if he read Taemin’s deep thoughts… In total desperation, he just wanted company. So, he moves over just enough for Kibum to squeeze onto his twin bed with him—suddenly, it’s as if Taemin feels instantly better. It surprises him just a bit, it somehow felt like magic._

_“Why are you here, hyung?” he finally talks to Kibum, out of his curiosity and prompting Kibum to turn his way…_

_“I can hear you cry dummy, I’m surprised the others don’t.” Taemin doesn’t say a word to respond, waiting to listen more from him. “And maybe I was feeling sad too, who knows? Anyway, the point is, I heard you. I want to help you…You’re not alone, okay Taemin?” and that’s when Taemin really freezes, still speechless overall—so Kibum must assume Taemin is shy because he turns away again, facing back to the top bunk before saying, “Look, let’s go to sleep. If I’m not afraid of the dark, why should you be? Everything is okay. And you’re not alone, at least now you have me. Goodnight…”_

_Taemin, yet again, keeps from responding. Instead, he snuggles close to his pillow and listens quietly in the dark… sure enough Kibum is there, and he wasn’t just dreaming… Somehow, it was reassuring that he was there next to him; now, Taemin didn’t feel so anxious. Maybe it’s silly, but Taemin starts to sniffle again anyway, until Kibum reaches over and holds his hand._

_“Thank you hyung.”_

_Taemin slept peacefully that night._

* * *

_**Two.** _

From the moment Taemin woke up, he knew his day was going to be a long one. From the wet mess he woke up in, to his multiple schedules—which included a heavy dance practice of course, Taemin wished nothing more than to just go back home and really think over what happened the night prior. He could feel that his brain is still restless and buzzing with thoughts, mostly of the movie he had watched this time around.

It’s been a little more than a year since SHINee has really had a comeback; after Taemin finished his enlistment period, the group was able to churn out at least 2 mini albums and a full album in between. However, as time went by it seemed like each member began to focus a bit more and more on their solo careers and activities. The four of them led very busy lives… Taemin continued to work in his solo music career with more albums of amazing tours, including a lot of new partner work also. He expanded his popularity and name worldwide immensely (of course with the help of SuperM activities squeezed in between as always). Minho made more movies than ever, and even starred in one film that went internationally famous—instantly boosting his popularity and booking his schedule more than ever. Jinki released another mini album, and a full album after that; he also continued to expand his acting career, diving into a drama and three musicals of different genres. The same could almost be said for the master key of the group, of course… Kibum, however, seemed to always have a lot more on his plate than the others. He was able to release the same amount of albums as Jinki, but with a full Japanese album sprinkled in between alongside yet another Keyland tour. He also continued to work in variety tv shows, alongside side projects of his own like more youtube videos, or vlive series. His acting career is where he worked the hardest though, in order to breakthrough as he finally went from having small parts on screen to leading roles, now having starred in at least two films.

Taemin can’t even think of all the acting gigs Kibum has done since he was discharged from the military, he can’t even fathom how much Kibum has done in general… It's as if the man has eternal batteries set on overdrive, and Taemin admires Kibum’s ability to be able to do so many different things and be so good at it all. But in the end, it really is too much to keep up with on top of his own packed schedule—which is why he can’t really blame himself for being so bad at constantly watching all of Kibum’s movies, let alone even perfectly keep up with any other of his activities. He could say the same about the other members too, and is sure that with their own busy lives probably feel the same sometimes.

Though, he isn’t completely clueless to everything his group members do on their solo work. He’s always sure to stay in contact with them, and in fact texts each of them pretty consistently, always sharing news or life updates… Taemin also tries his best to watch a movie or series he hasn’t gotten around to when he finds the free time. Recently, certain films Kibum has starred in have really piqued Taemin’s taste in movies… The latest one he watched last night was no different, but was certainly a lot more troublesome to Taemin’s mind this time.

  
  
After finally arriving home, the moon was set back up in the night sky and welcomed itself yet again into Taemin’s apartment. The first thing he does after locking his door is run and jump back into bed, letting out a loud sigh of relief to finally finish his day. It was extremely hard for him to stay focused today, and it proved particularly annoying during dance practice while trying to learn new choreography for yet another world tour… The movie he watched last night was screaming in his brain, and of course along with it came more thoughts of Kibum, which would just ultimately lead Taemin into some weird existential crisis. He felt anxious all over.

Though, Taemin did actually really enjoy the movie, titled simply “ _The Other Dimension”._ He had only decided to watch it because he was reminded of it on a random comment on the internet during his nightly roaming… It made him realize the movie was a year old and he had yet to watch it. Now, Taemin is extremely happy he finally got around to it, because it was an extremely good movie and Kibum only proved himself to be as amazing as always; the plot really spoke to him however, and made him think of certain possibilities in his life that he may have never considered before…

In the movie, Kibum played the role of a man who is somehow transported into a different dimension; he still finds himself on the planet Earth but quickly realizes nothing is the same. The Earth he was in now was in complete shambles: a post-apocalyptic wasteland that fell into anarchy with one specific group of people who deemed themselves some sort of rulers—that is however, because they were infamous for capturing and enslaving communities of people into practically becoming their growing army.

Kibum, expectedly, gets caught up in that situation and the movie’s plot progresses from that point, especially when he encounters one specific woman who decides to help him with his plans on returning to his own dimension… Kibum’s character falls rather hard for the woman throughout many events and circumstances, turning her into the love interest and initiating a good number of make out scenes as soon as their relationship becomes established (make out scenes that were the culprit of Taemin’s pain last night…) In the end, the love that grew between the two characters made Kibum’s departure rather difficult—despite the fact his character was in an everyday hell, his love interest made him debate on staying anyway.

He doesn’t though, as it’s the love interest who pushes him into the device that returns him back home all in the midst of a dramatic battle. It was really like something straight out of some anime, Taemin thought… Altogether, he was actually impressed with the amount of action that was in the movie, mostly because it’s regarding Kibum whom he never imagined would want to get so gruesome on camera… There is even a scene in the movie, when Kibum is first captured by the growing army in the beginning, where he is practically beaten and tortured for recruitment. Aside from the kick ass violence, Taemin was pleased with the fact the movie resulted with a freshly shaved Kibum, yet again—not only does he love the way Kibum looks with a bald head, but it certainly reminds him of a few times he holds fondly.

“The first time he shaved it was certainly the best one…” Taemin sighs out loud to himself as he moves to make himself more comfortable in bed, diving deeper into his thoughts than ever… “OH!”, he gasps suddenly, reaching over to grab his phone off the nightstand. Unlocking the main screen, he immediately goes to compose a new text message… contact name: _Kibummie Hyung._ Taemin stares at his screen after typing his message, suddenly frozen and unsure… he had been wanting to reach out to Kibum all day, obviously having him stuck in his head all the time makes it hard to not want to… but now he’s here, and he feels nervous. Taemin bites his bottom lip and presses send anyway, tossing his phone back before plummeting onto his pillows and engulfing himself in sheets.

**. . .**

_Taemin practically pushes his way through the SM building, hardly taking time to say hello to anyone as he makes his way to their meeting room as fast as possible. He didn’t even wait for Jinki or Minho to get out of the car themselves before booking it inside, he could hardly contain himself really… SHINee was finally about to meet and discuss their 10th anniversary comeback, what they had agreed on such a long time ago to be their 6th full length album… and though, Taemin may not be too overjoyed about the comeback itself, Kibum had just posted something on Instagram that could easily help give him the time of his life anyway._

_“Is he really bald? Kibummie, did you really shave your head!?” Taemin explodes through the door as soon as he reaches his destination, startling everyone inside including a very focused Kibum. The few in the room burst into laughter right after, mostly after Taemin gasps and gapes his mouth open the moment he spots his target—Kibum, who on the other hand, keeps from laughing and only pouts away to hide a growing blush making its way onto his cheeks._

_“I still have hair, don’t get TOO excited.” Kibum exclaims before Taemin finally makes his way, “Close your mouth already, I know it’s not as ugly as you’re making it out to be.”_

_“I didn’t say it was ugly…” Taemin responds, pursing his lips together and getting closer to Kibum to examine his look up close and personal. He’s enchanted, and if he has to admit, also a bit jealous (but that’s besides the point…) Taemin actually likes how well and clear you can see Kibum’s face this way, and is especially fond of how soft his short hair looks… Kibum doesn’t say a thing when Taemin reaches his hand over and starts petting his head like a cat._

_“Were you hoping I would be completely bald, skin and all?” Taemin feels Kibum’s head bounce with laughter and suddenly feels himself get shy in reaction… Maybe he was expecting Kibum to be totally hairless, what else could he imagine after watching him buzz his hair on social media? What he got instead is a whole lot better. He even thinks this might be one of his favorite looks on Kibum, and he’s excited to see what he’ll do with it for the comeback itself. The short blond locks underneath his fingertips feel addicting already…_

_“I was expecting total baldness Hyung, but if I’m going to be honest this only makes me want to say you missed a golden opportunity not doing this for Odd. Remember, when you wanted to do this then? It would have fit the concept… and you look amazing, too. Maybe I should finally try it too!” There’s a slight pause, and Taemin stops himself from petting Kibum’s head when he finally looks up to him in a sweet smile._

_“Thank you for that, but our precious SHINee World isn’t taking this very well so… perhaps it’s a good thing I didn’t do this back then. And maybe you shouldn’t do it either… ever, haha.”_

_“Did they really not take it well?” Minho’s voice enters the room, turning Kibum’s attention away from Taemin to him in order to continue the conversation. Jinki and a few managers follow in after, initiating the meeting will start very soon now._

_“I’m not sure… I feel it’s about half and half, some of them like it but the feedback mostly seems pretty unhappy.” Kibum laughs again but nervously this time, “Oh well, this was for my movie after all, and my hair will grow back anyway—”_

_“I hope it doesn’t.” Taemin cuts in, finally taking his seat next to Kibum and reaching his hand back out to feel his head yet again, “This look is so fun Hyung, trust me. Who cares what they think?”._

_“Well, you do Taemin, for starters… that’s certainly no secret.” Minho replies instead, making everyone in the room laugh again. Kibum reaches up to remove Taemin’s hand from his head this time and gives him a soft look, hinting at him to ‘save it for later’. So then, Taemin keeps to himself and keeps from responding back to Minho’s comment, because he is right. In fact, they all care deeply about what their fans think of them. It’s hard to not feel totally guilty when something they don’t like does happen, but it’s just impossible to keep them happy 100% of the time. And if they even did try, it would probably be at the expense of their own happiness… Kibum can’t even shave his head for his first movie role without some kind of uproar, Taemin wishes it was different. Confidence is hard to maintain thanks to it all…_

_The meeting begins the second everyone is finally settled, and no more banter about Kibum’s hair ever really comes up between the group again. The managers talk and the members share ideas to one another, all while Taemin takes his chances to stare at Kibum beside him whenever he can—to intake the new buzz cut, and study his open features once more because seeing him three nights ago just wasn’t enough… Especially not now that Kibum suddenly looks as beautiful as ever to Taemin, when Taemin wants nothing more than to keep his hands on his soft head, petting him while speaking sweet nothings; reassure him he isn’t ugly and is doing his best…_

_So, Taemin is sure to do just that, any chance he gets when it presents itself to him. His hand becomes more accustomed to be on top of Kibum’s head with each encounter, and he wastes no effort in reminding him of how much he loves the haircut, how soft his head is, or how sexy he looks… Kibum even starts to enjoy all the compliments, and the way Taemin scratches the back of his head whenever they decide to kiss or sleep around again, a bad habit they’ve fallen into recently (and again) to release their stress and ill feelings…_

_Taemin only starts to feel a bit of remorse towards Kibum after he finally decides to grow his hair back, though he saw it coming as soon as SHINee’s promotions were over for the year… Soon enough, Taemin is hardly surrounded by his members anymore, he gets swamped with his own work yet again while Kibum prepares his first solo—asking Taemin for more comments and advice than ever, but through text messages and phone calls only… It doesn’t take long for Taemin to miss the feeling of fuzzy hair tickling his hand, and the large hand that would cup his small one to get him to stop._

**. . .**

_i am NOT going to shave my head again!_

_what are you going on about?_

_…wait, dont tell me… you are BARELY getting around to watching my latest movie arent you?_

_taeminnie…_

_(typing…)_

Kibum starts to blow up Taemin’s phone the moment he begins to fall into a slumber, though he isn’t bothered as he looks down at his incoming messages and snickers to himself in victory. He honestly wasn’t expecting a reply so soon, seeing that Kibum never replied to his last message a week ago…

_you know we get busy hyung, at least i finally took the time! don’t act so mad! i watched it yesterday! the whole thing was so good, but i really do think your bald head was my favorite part of it all 6v6_

_-_

_well, thank you for enjoying the movie, but i am truly sorry to tell you i will never be going bald again. my hair is still growing back, and our precious shawols will most likely kill me after the 3rd time lol_

_-_

_that’s probably true but…would you do it if i asked in a different dimension? if we lived in a whole other universe?_

He presses send quickly and starts to get anxious all over again before turning his phone over and ignoring it. All day what has been screaming in his mind the most was the movie’s concept of multiple dimensions and how they work… See, in the movie it was established very quickly that all the same people live in every dimension. Kibum’s character running into his own self at some point in the movie, was a point of conflict in itself—and aside from seeing how everyone’s lives and personalities were so different in a whole different dimension, Taemin became extremely intrigued by the sole fact that everyone still existed anyway.

Especially towards the end, when Kibum’s character encounters his love interest for the first time back in his own dimension, ending the movie on a very corny note hinting that they fall in love—ultimately granting Kibum’s character total satisfaction in going home and keeping his lover… It made Taemin wonder if that meant lovers would always be the same no matter the world they lived in… Or more specifically, if things like his group would still exist, or if he would have even known his members… All the things he can think of that could be so different… And he still wonders to this moment, if there’s even a dimension out there better than his own.

He feels his phone vibrate next to his leg, feeling even more anxious and now wondering if Kibum had this dilemma when working on the film himself… He almost wishes he tried talking to Kibum more at the time this shoot was happening, there could’ve been a handful of meaningful conversations. In a deep breath he grabs his phone to keep his current conversation from dying instead, reading Kibum’s simple reply.

_who knows, if we weren’t famous i probably would…_

Taemin lets out a sigh of relief; Kibum is headed in the direction he was looking towards.

_do you really think we wouldn’t be famous?_

_-_

_who knows, there could be endless dimensions taemin… there has to at least be one we're not famous in, right? lol you can’t expect shinee to exist forever and everywhere_

_-_

_do you think we would still know each other then? if we weren’t famous._

_-_

_…i would like to think so…_

_-_

_me too, i cant imagine not knowing any of you. i cant imagine never meeting you kibummie…_

_-_

_…taemin, are u okay?_

_did my movie give you a mental break or something LOL_

This time, Taemin pouts; sure enough Kibum headed in the direction he was looking but maybe a bit too well… it’s as though he can read his mind… He holds his breath and decides to be honest.

_yes it did;;_

_and it also made me miss you, hyung._

_i actually miss you a lot…_

_-_

_i miss you too, taeminnie…_

_i miss all of you, i think it’s time for another comeback?_

-

_i guess so…_

_i mean, i miss them too but i’m just talking about you hyung._

_i miss YOU._

Kibum takes longer to reply after Taemin’s last message, but Taemin assumes he must have fallen asleep due to the longer the night goes on… It’s past 3am, and now Taemin finds himself in yet another sleepless night stuck in his thoughts and random memories. He rubs his blankets while deep in thought, trying to remember the feeling of Kibum’s bald head… If the concept of different dimensions were real, Taemin can only imagine how his relationship with everyone would be like in them—mostly with Kibum, who truly can’t leave his brain whatsoever at this point, there’s no fighting that…

All the kisses they’ve shared… Taemin thinks long and hard to himself, that maybe, just maybe, there could be a dimension where they simply fall in love without being in SHINee, and go on dates, and kiss each other whenever they want… They could actually embrace all their encounters, and love each other openly… Kibum could even cook for him all the time, and they could walk their pets after too… Things would be so different, and Taemin is jealous, he feels somber and petty… He… just now realized he’s in love with Kibum. He always has been.

**. . .**

_“Wake up Taemin, it’s time to go.” Kibum reaches over and shakes Taemin awake. He opens his eyes as Kibum gets out of bed and slowly walks over to open the curtain. Sunlights rips right into the hotel room, illuminating everything inside—Taemin’s sight is immediately drawn to the bright pink fuzz standing in front of the window. Taemin smiles, stretching to wake up but refusing to leave his pillow…_

_“Who said it’s time to go? Come back and be lazy with me…” Taemin reaches out to Kibum, who only lifts a hand to scratch his pink head before walking right back into bed._

_“I wish…” Kibum sighs, taking a seat next to Taemin. He reaches down to lift the hair out of Taemin’s face, caressing his eyebrow along with it. Taemin takes the moment in, closing his eyes and breathing in to relax—that is, before Kibum slaps him right on the face. “Our flight is soon Taemin, we have to go back home. Our Japanese activities are done for now…” Taemin only grabs onto Kibum’s hand without giving him the chance to retract it from his face yet, and yanks him down into his arms._

_“Of course, how could I forget?” Taemin slaps Kibum on the side of his head this time, as he’s trapped within his bare arms._

_“Yah! Let go!” Kibum starts to wiggle furiously in an attempt to break free._

_“Kiss me first!”_

_“Taemin!” Kibum stops his movement then and sighs as loud as he can, “Can you give me room to do so if that’s the case?” Taemin’s gummy smile shines in victory as he loosens his grip before Kibum turns over to him. “You are so annoying you know.”_

_“I know,” Taemin smirks and closes his eyes, awaiting his prize. Kibum compensates, smiling to himself before reaching closer and pecking Taemin softly on his lips; once again, he’s stopped from pulling away as Taemin snakes his hand to the back of his head, seemingly making the kiss deeper and last longer. They melt into the sheets beneath them, as Taemin slowly takes soft bites of Kibum’s bottom lip with sweet pecks in between, all while Kibum pecks back and occasionally licks at Taemin’s philtrum… Kibum can’t help but to let out tiny moans with each bite he feels. When Taemin finally breaks the kiss, the atmosphere becomes stark; Kibum keeps quiet, staring back with the same somberness he’s being looked at._

_“You know what I’m going to say now, right?” Kibum breaks the silence after a minute, while also tilting his head closer into Taemin’s hand as Taemin begins rubbing him behind his ear…_

_“No more of this in Seoul,” he swallows hard before finishing, “I know hyung.” Taemin continues to rub Kibum’s head, taking in as much of the moment as he could before Kibum slowly starts to rise from the bed again. Taemin feels defeated, for some reason, as he watches Kibum make his way back around the hotel room, gathering his things._

_“You’re lucky I even agreed to share a room with you this time Taemin, this isn’t like old times… we can all afford our own rooms now.”_

_“HUH? Kibummie hyung... sharing the room was YOUR idea, don’t forget that!” exclaims Taemin in return as he finally gets out of bed himself._

_“Don’t remind me, you’ll make me regret my choice!” Kibum laughs as Taemin throws a sock in his direction, “Oh, don’t pout at me like that Taeminnie, come on. You know I’m only joking.” Taemin rolls his eyes in response._

_“You really love to mess around, I know that for a fact… Now if only your boyfriend back home did too,” whispers Taemin while going to retrieve his sock._

_“TAEMIN!”_

_In a quick instant Taemin feels a large slap to his shoulder, Kibum is suddenly beside him, “No one told you to be such an asshole, apologize to me!”_

_“No way,” Taemin replies, facing Kibum without fear and only stepping closer to him, “You know I’m right anyway…” Kibum only flares his nostrils back at Taemin, annoyed but not necessarily angry—he knows Taemin is right but refuses to admit it anyway. “And you know hyung, this happens all the time so I’m used to it, really… You date around a lot more than I do, and cheating has never been something either of us would stray away from so… My remark should be taken as a joke at this point, at least I think.” He finishes before reaching over to touch Kibum’s head yet another time... Kibum, who is now at a loss of words only gazes down to his toes, reflecting on the words Taemin had to say as he pets his head. He doesn’t want him to stop._

_“You’re right, Taemin…” he looks up to meet Taemin’s warm brown eyes, making his heart melt. Taemin stares back at him too, knowing Kibum still has more to say with the melancholy look in his eye, “You out of all people would know, especially.” Kibum chuckles slightly without trying to sound too awkward, “It’s hard to stay away from you after all... I guess I can’t help but our kisses are so addicting.”_

_“Aren’t they?” Taemin responds, almost ignoring whatever Kibum has to say because he’s entranced by his touch on him; Without another word, he closes the gap between them, kissing once more. The kiss is a lot shorter this time though, as Kibum pushes Taemin away, also breaking the sensation of feeling Taemin's hand on his head._

_“Seriously stop, enough! Taemin, we really need to get ready!” Kibum huffs and pushes Taemin back once more to ensure he really starts to pack. Taemin sighs to himself and rolls his eyes, cleaning up while pouting to himself and wishing they could have at least one more day in Japan; one more night with his hyung, just once more… Instead they have to go home, where they have to continue to work without a good distraction…_

_Well, at least Kibum has his boyfriend, Taemin thinks. He looks back over to Kibum, who is folding his clothes neat and orderly into his suitcase, and starts to think instead that maybe he’s a bit jealous of that boyfriend… Only because it would be a really nice treat to kiss Kibum whenever he wants, of course. To be able to mess with him for fun at home, and even ending the night with him would be pretty nice too… not just when either of them decide they’re horny enough to break truce…_

_Taemin pauses his thoughts, unsure of where his mind was headed but mostly because he gets caught in the glow of Kibum’s aura—his presence in general, it feels so beautiful to Taemin… Maybe it has only been a month since they last slept together, but it feels like so much longer if you were to ask him… So, Taemin can only ponder on why he’s been feeling so addicted to Kibum lately, he thinks that maybe he was right about their kisses… Or maybe—he thinks, as Kibum turns around exposing the extreme pink color of his bald head—it’s the buzz cut. Taemin really does love it; the look, the touch, and especially the comfort (and person) that came along with it. In the end, he’s only left feeling more defeated…_

* * *

_**Three** **.** _

" _Kibum, why is Taemin here?” Jonghyun asks while climbing down from Kibum’s bed. His eyes are wide open and Taemin can tell he’s suddenly gotten nervous the moment he and Kibum entered the room. He’s dressed in pajamas, just like the rest of them… no surprise since it’s a bit past 11pm now. Taemin takes a step behind Kibum, in an effort to hide a bit in case he was about to be told to get out._

_“Well…” Kibum laughs nervously and steps aside, swinging the large glass of wine in his hand a bit to start explaining his story, “Taemin caught me in the kitchen taking this out from our hiding spot… He got intrigued and when I told him we were going to drink and play games… there was no shaking him off.”_

_“PLAY!” gasps Jonghyun, startling Taemin a bit. He starts to think running out now would save everyone from a whole lot of trouble… Jonghyun asks then, in a hushed tone, “Does he know what we’re playing?” Kibum coughs out loud in response, as if he choked on his spit…_

_“Uh, I told him we’re playing spin the bottle…” Jonghyun drops his mouth in disbelief now, almost as though he’s about ready to fist fight Kibum…_

_“Okay well I guess we’re playing spin the bottle now! Great!” Jonghyun laughs in response instead, probably in an attempt to hide his nerves, but can’t contain himself too much. He swings his arms up nonetheless, running his hands through his hair before exclaiming, “Does he have to play Kibummie? Oh gosh, this is so weird now! I was really looking forward to tonight!”_

_“Hey, look!” snaps back Kibum, “I didn’t want him to be here okay? But he gave me that look, and—”_

_“I’m right here guys…” Taemin randomly butts into Jonghyun and Kibum’s bantering, growing a bit annoyed at the fact his hyung’s were so hesitant on playing some dumb game with out him… Sure, he’s never played spin the bottle, let alone kiss many people (or a boy to say the least) but maybe with a drink or two (which he’s also ever hardly had much of), he could have fun? He’s been feeling so worn out after releasing their second repackaged album, and since they haven’t been allowed to leave the dorm much lately well, why the hell not join some game? Now if only Jonghyun and Kibum weren’t so selfish to shut him out…_

_It’s no secret to him, Minho, or Jinki that Jonghyun and Kibum do things that they probably shouldn’t be doing—from drinking (which everyone was guilty of in all honesty) to things like making out, and taking their skin ship to another level… Neither of them really cared though, nor did it bother them enough to say anything against it. At most, Jinki would only warn them to be careful, Minho would tease, and Taemin… Well, Taemin would only grow more curious the older he got. At first, he was a bit fascinated with the fact his hyung’s were kissing; It made him giddy, mostly because he could sense something between them anyway, and because the whole situation brought him great amusement. He would either be teasing them himself, or trying his best to get involved…_

_He couldn’t help his curiosity, after all. Hearing Jonghyun sneak off from their shared room in the middle of the night, knowing he was headed to Kibummie’s room… Finding out they drink, from when Jonghyun would accidentally climb into Taemin’s bed upon returning… Even the fan service they would do, it all just fed into his curiosity. Taemin would start to wonder how far they go, or even just… how they look kissing after all._

_“Taemin…” Kibum replies to him after a while of awkward standing, Taemin was already chewing on his bottom lip from his thinking, he’s hoping they don’t turn him away. Kibum sighs, “I’ll ask again, are you sure you want to play? We’re your hyung’s after all…”_

_“Really? Isn’t Jonghyun your hyung too, though?” Taemin pouts this time and takes a step away from Kibum and further into the room. “Yes, I want to play! What’s the big deal?” Jonghyun and Kibum stare at him without a word, surely upset they can’t shake away their maknae from joining their planned night of fun—alone._

_Taemin continues, practically pleading in a last attempt to convince them and change Jonghyun’s mind, “Please guys, it’s Friday night… It’s been months since we’ve been caught sneaking out, we’ve all been trapped in here. I’m so bored… Why can’t I just join your fun for one night? Just this once, please?”_

_“Taemin, listen this isn’t just about fun okay?” Jonghyun finally speaks up in a sigh of his own, walking towards Taemin’s direction and getting ready to kick him out for sure. “Kibum and I wanted—”_

_Kibum steps in between the two however, stopping Jonghyun from ultimately pushing Taemin out of the room…_

_“It’s not a big deal Jjong, let him play.” Kibum places the hand he’s not holding the bottle with on Jonghyun’s chest, giving him a puppy dog look, a trick Taemin has seen him do before. “Let Taeminnie have fun just this once?”_

_Jonghyun tucks in his lips and lets out a giant huff at Kibum… He practically waves his white flag after that, throwing his arms up in defeat before returning to his spot on Kibum’s bed. He scowls a bit at Taemin, squinting his eyes before signaling him to join him on the bed too. Once Taemin does, the mood instantly changes, as Jonghyun smiles wide with all his teeth and lightly punches him on the arm, “I hope you have fun then, Taeminnie, are you ready?”_

_“Yep, he better be ready!” Kibum laughs, still standing by the entrance of his room. “But first… to play spin the bottle we’ll need an empty glass right?” He lifts up the wine bottle in his hand, high in the air as if it was a lost treasure. Taemin gulps, unassured of what he’s gotten himself into but not scared at all…_

_Kibum pulls out dirty wine glasses from somewhere in his mess of a closet, and the three of them drink the bottle slowly—bickering even more between themselves along with a ton of laughter and a handful of interesting conversations. It only took them about an hour to actually finish the bottle entirely. By then, Taemin was certainly feeling something… though he wouldn’t say he was drunk, he was a light tipsy at best (or at least he thinks). He can tell the others were as well… Kibum is actually the last to finish, and both Taemin and Jonghyun watch him in anticipation as he chugs down the last of his glass._

_“OKAY, can we play now?” Jonghyun speaks immediately after Kibum sighs with relief and pats his tummy in delight, all while nodding his head._

_“Yep we definitely can start playing now, everyone knows the rules…” Kibum pauses to look over slowly to Taemin with a smug smile plastered on his face. He winks at him, “Right?”_

_Taemin scrunches his eyebrows and pouts slightly as he knows Kibum is only poking fun at him, especially because Jonghyun starts to snicker to himself and whispers things to Kibum about leaving him alone… The room starts to feel hot._

_“If it’s the same as in the movies, it shouldn’t be that hard right?” Taemin exclaims a bit loudly, responding with confidence despite his cheeks starting to glow pink. He notices Jonghyun nods his head in the corner of his eye as Kibum agrees with Taemin’s remark; he goes on to quickly go over the rules and concept of the game anyway, which certainly matched up to Taemin’s expectations._

_The person of whoever’s turn it is will spin the bottle; they must kiss whoever it lands on, and they cannot deny whoever it lands on. The kiss must last at least 10 seconds._

_Though, Taemin is a bit concerned with the fact the rules to the game were so simple. He realized, there are only three of them—the game is bound to either be extremely short or boring… This can’t be all these two do each night they’re together._

_“So, who wants to spin first?” Kibum asks suddenly the room goes dead, and no one raises their hand so he rolls his eyes, “Okay then it’s decided! Jonghyun will go first, and we’ll go by age after that. Let’s move to the floor!” He doesn’t even let Jonghyun argue as he practically shoves the bottle in his hands and moves his way to the floor, prompting the two to follow him right after._

_When seated, Jonghyun holds onto the bottle. Taemin can see slight sweat drip on his hairline, and he watches him gulp as he slowly places the bottle on the floor, “I guess it’s my turn,” he sounds nervous and his nose is now tinted pink, “get ready guys! Here I go!”_

_Quickly, he reaches down to the bottle he placed facing Kibum’s direction and gives it a good spin. In this instant, Taemin feels like he can’t breathe; he gets nervous all over again… what is he doing here again? Does he really want to kiss his members? How drunk is he? The bottle slows down, and coincidentally lands facing towards Kibum’s direction… The tension is somehow broken a bit._

_“Oh, well… will you look at that Jjong! You get to kiss me after all.” Kibum taunts Jonghyun in a teasing voice and blows kisses at him making Taemin laugh. Unlike Jonghyun and himself, Kibum seems to be fine, at least it seems. He rolls his eyes and laughs, “Come and get it already!”_

_Jonghyun only starts laughing in return before plunging forward and giving Kibum a big kiss on the lips, surely holding it there for a while. Taemin starts to count to ten, but comes to see rules are broken as he watches Jonghyun deepen his kiss with Kibum… Kibum goes in for it, but instantly pushes him back, breaking away, still in laughter. Taemin’s nerves are suddenly back on his shoulders, and he realizes he’s sweating himself too. This is really happening…_

_“The rules say the kiss is only 10 seconds, don’t break them Jjong,” Kibum pushes him back again to try to get him to back up into the spot he was in for the game; instead he goes in for another kiss and gets it._

_“Sorry Kibummie, I’ve been wanting to do that all day. 10 seconds just isn’t enough” Jonghyun uses sweet words to try to coddle, but fails to his advantage as Kibum slaps him and yells at him to back up anyway. Taemin gulps, he now feels like he’s invisible… He’s watching his hyung’s and how fondly sweet they are. He saw them kiss with love…_

_In Kibum’s success, Jonghyun returns to his seat and he gets to grab the bottle to proceed with the game, “Anyway! It’s my turn, let’s see who I get!” He spins the bottle then, and now Taemin can really feel himself sweating hardcore; his palms are even drenched. He feels like throwing up the instant he sees the bottle slow down and land in his direction… Suddenly, the room feels like it’s dead again—Taemin doesn’t even look at anyone, and spaces out as he takes in what’s about to happen._

_Before anyone even says a thing though, Jonghyun shrieks, bringing Taemin’s attention back to reality. “You can’t kiss Taeminnie! No! Game over, I changed my mind!”_

_“Calm down!” exclaims Kibum, waving his hand as if to signal Jonghyun to keep quiet. Taemin starts breathing heavily to keep himself from truly getting sick, and looks Kibum in the eye. He’s staring at him with a worried face, and though Taemin thinks Kibum might actually refuse to play… He gets closer to him._

_“This is weird, gosh…” Kibum whispers when he seats himself in front of Taemin, they both have all their focus on one another; Jonghyun wails a bit in their side view. Kibum reaches up to touch his lips, “You can breathe Taemin it’s okay…”_

_“I don’t know if I want to play now hyung,” Taemin says suddenly, just about to puke when he says the words. Kibum sits back…_

_“That’s okay if you don’t, I understand and I won’t force you,” is all he says in response to Taemin. He sits there in front of him, waiting for Taemin to reply… Taemin only stares back at him, blinking nonstop and continuing to breathe deep. He notices despite the situation, Kibum is hardly sweating as much as he is; He looks slowly down to Kibum’s lips and studies them. He’s always thought they had a nice shape, they were well defined and he had a sharp cupid’s bow—normal looking (unlike his). Watching how tender they looked against Jonghyun’s lips just now was so interesting actually… Maybe Taemin should feel them too... He decides this is the opportunity he was looking for after all, this is practically what he wanted. He can’t back away now, there’s no way._

_“Actually,” He notices Kibum flares his nostrils, “I’m okay… let’s play.” He smiles nervously then, and Kibum slowly smiles back at him before laughing awkwardly and scratching the back of his head. He leans forward, closer to Taemin’s face than ever before and waits there… He reaches over and grabs a piece of hair that goes to his bang._

_“Your hair is so long right now, Taeminnie…” he then reaches down instead, and holds onto one of Taemin’s hands. Taemin can feel his heart about to burst out of his chest, breathing harder than ever through his nose in more effort to contain his cool—throwing up on his hyung is the last thing he wants… Kibum can sense Taemin’s nervousness, so he lets go of his hand and whispers close to him, “Here let’s try this… Close your eyes, pretend we’re in bed at night, okay?”_

_Taemin gulps yet again and thinks that Kibum’s idea actually doesn’t sound too bad, so he nods his head back and takes the deepest breath he can, closing his eyes in the process. He exhales and tries his best to continue to focus on his breathing to distract his nerves as he waits with his eyes in the dark… Kibum could almost laugh at the cute boy in front of him now. Burning pink from drinking and nerves, totally covered in sweat with his eyes closed and chest heaving—waiting for a kiss from another boy he works with... He isn’t sure this is real anymore, and he feels his heart tug…_

_So, Kibum makes a move to prove it is real. He leans in closer, listening to Taemin’s deep breathing for a quick second, examining his plump lips before finally closing the gap and feeling them on his own… Taemin’s heart suddenly stops for a second when he feels Kibum’s kiss on his lips, it even feels like time stops too. 10 seconds feel like 10 minutes, but the feeling of Kibum’s lips against his own wasn’t something he could complain about; his lips were soft and plush._

_Jonghyun shrieks again when Kibum finally breaks the kiss (following the rules), “You really did it, you kissed Taeminnie!”. Kibum starts waving at him again, sticking out his tongue in exchange this time. Taemin smiles for once, a bit amused at Jonghyun’s reaction and taking in the fact he really just kissed Kibum—for some reason, picturing it as though he was being kissed in bed made him feel relaxed; If anything… it felt nice, and he almost wishes he could feel Kibum’s lips for longer..._

_“It wasn’t that bad, he’s not a complete baby you know!” Jonghyun rolls his eyes at Kibum’s response. Taemin interrupts by coughing the next moment, to remind them he’s not leaving, and to clear his throat after it got so dry from nearly choking to death just now… Both Jonghyun and Kibum laugh at him a bit before asking if he’s okay, and though he still feels a bit dizzy, he doesn’t feel like he’s about faint anymore… in fact he feels more than ready for his turn and nods his head back. He was starting to feel a sudden adrenaline from Kibum’s kiss, and his eager side was starting to boil up inside of him for more._

_When he finally gets to take his turn, he ends up having to kiss Kibum one more time. This time he leans in instead, feeling ecstatic to receive his kiss... By now, Taemin definitely feels more than secure and happy to be playing this game, even when Jonghyun’s bottle lands on him and causes a giant scene just to get him to kiss Taemin and follow the game’s rules… It was fun actually, all the three of them laughed the entire time with their dramatic reactions and statements on the side. It stopped being awkward to them soon, and even Taemin’s presence hardly bothered Jonghyun… who started to feel more at ease with the fact Taemin is only having fun, and is making his own choices._

_The game hardly lasts however, because it doesn’t take long before Taemin starts to feel drowsy. He starts to nod off after the second round ends—he ends up kissing Jonghyun twice, and Kibum four times… The last thing he remembers is spinning his third turn, and leaning in to kiss Kibum with confidence (and the hiccups). He was happy, and was certainly having fun; Kibum’s lips really sent an electric tickle down his spine… He can see why Jonghyun is trying so hard to claim him now… Taemin enjoyed that last kiss, especially because Kibum held his hand._

_He laughs into slumber after the kiss ends, and Kibum carries him to his own bed. The next morning, he wakes up with a horrible hangover—all alone in his room._

**. . .**

Taemin returns home the next day feeling just as exhausted as the day prior; he never got a reply from Kibum after telling him he missed him… and nothing about today was any different from yesterday so Taemin wasn’t in the most happy of moods. Especially since his mind is still haunting him with the same intrusive thoughts, and different types of memories that bring different emotions to Taemin—ranging from longing to extremely sad.

If anything, he feels lonely and missing his old days with his members in the dorm they lived in the longest… When he was still sharing with Jonghyun, and before Kibum decided to move out. If anything, he mostly wishes he could have one of the late night life lessons Jonghyun would give him randomly when they—mostly Jjong— couldn’t sleep (though, that’s not to mention, as they got older they would kiss and mess around sometimes too). Taemin thinks he needs some of his best knowledge right now… or even just one of his big hugs. 

Taemin sighs while sitting on the edge of his bed. He did think a lot about Jonghyun today, and although he can’t really pinpoint when Jonghyun and Kibum stopped sleeping around (more like broke up), Taemin realized Kibum never stopped sleeping around with him. Though, Kibum never really dated him either, and now he’s jealous of Jonghyun for that fact he never really processed until now. To be Kibum’s boyfriend… Taemin sighs again, now getting frustrated with the movie lingering back into his mind.

He simply can’t believe all this is happening so suddenly, and it’s all because of some random movie one of his band mates starred in! He would have never imagined his life would turn out this way when he debuted at fifteen… but then again, he’s one hundred percent sure he wouldn’t have been able to predict anything that’s happened thus far… Life is truly a funny thing, he thinks. 

And who would’ve thought playing spin the bottle in a room, on a Friday night would advance his relationship with his two hyung’s. Their trust and overall bond became stronger after, especially later down the line when Taemin turned twenty… When he thinks of it now, all of SHINee really blossomed by that point in his life. He’s grateful—and even hopes that his group exists in as many dimensions as possible. He hopes for the same experiences, and all the same joy.

Taemin looks down at his phone, and pouts when he sees the time is a lot later than he realized: past midnight… He wonders where Kibum has been all day, and why he decided to not reply to Taemin’s last text. Taemin thinks back to how Kibum claimed missing all the group, and Taemin agrees… maybe a comeback is due, and it would only work in his favor—bringing Kibum back near his proximity. 

When he decides to tuck himself under his cover, he decides to text Kibum… He’s feeling desperate to keep talking, and even now because he wants to talk about more times with Jonghyun, perhaps remember more stories similar to spin the bottle. He keeps his message honest, and to the point.

_i hope you had a nice day hyung… i remembered the day we played spin the bottle today, it was a nice memory to reflect on…_

He presses send without any hopes that Kibum would even reply to him still… Perhaps he’ll be able to get a proper night of sleep tonight—or at least he’s hoping. The few hours he’s been getting the past two days combined are starting to catch up to him, he’s feeling more worn out than ever. His expectations turn out to be wrong though—his phone buzzes with an incoming text notification… Kibum actually replied.

_omg…really?_

_are you being serious right now?_

_(typing…)_

Taemin, confused with the responses he receives, only squints back to his phone waiting for Kibum to finish his last message. Instead, he stops typing altogether and nothing is sent… Taemin stares waiting for a whole minute before finally giving in and typing a reply himself.

_…yes? 6v6_

It’s not even a minute before Taemin presses send before Kibum is calling him on the phone rather than reply back to his text, startling him immediately. Kibum calling him in the middle of the night was the LAST thing he expected right now; his mind is flooded with anxiety… he has no idea as to what can happen now, and it’s frightening to him. All of a sudden, he’s like a deer in headlights.

Something in him prompts him to answer the phone right before the call ends anyway, and he greets himself with a low _‘hello’_ , taking a deep breath in; he holds it in until he hears Kibum’s voice. He can feel the room suddenly get tiny, everything including himself feels so small...

“I don’t even know where to start with you…” Taemin can tell Kibum is annoyed for some reason just by the tone of his voice… but he can tell he’s also tired, “But, I’ve had a long day so you know what? I’m not even sure why I called you now.”

“Kibummie is everything okay?” there is concern in Taemin’s voice when he asks; from the way he sounds, it only scares Taemin a bit more. It feels like he did something wrong but he doesn’t know what. He’s hoping he hasn’t been bothering Kibum with his recent conversations, and he hopes even more that Kibum hasn’t caught onto his thoughts or somehow read his mind…

“I should be asking you that, it feels like… No, I’m not okay, not right now at least.” Taemin gulps when he hears what Kibum has to say, but doesn’t say a word. Instead, Kibum continues, “I don’t know why, when you texted me yesterday I really thought it was because you were hinting at being at my premiere today… You know, because I had one for another movie I finished a couple months back.”

“I honestly can’t remember if you ever told me you finished filming,” says Taemin nervously, just now remembering that Kibum was in fact filming a new movie a long time ago. He’s just sure he was never informed of when the premiere was… so now, he sits guilty on the phone with his hyung feeling heart broken for having let him down without meaning too.

Kibum sighs, “It’s okay, it was silly of me in the first place… You’ve never really come to my premiere anyway.” Taemin can tell he’s calmed down quickly, “It’s not like we’ve ever been the best supporting one another anyway… I must be missing you then.” He finishes his sentence and keeps silent; Taemin keeps the silence in return, starting to feel uneasy with more thoughts.

The way Kibum sounds to him right now is disappointing, and although he’s sure Kibum knows Taemin didn’t do anything on purpose because there’s no way he knew of anything… Taemin can’t help himself from feeling guilty anyway, because what Kibum says is true: they’ve never been the best at supporting their solo activities. He tries to keep himself from feeling too guilty though, because both of them are red handed…

Taemin and Kibum are the only duo who would stall or delay from supporting each other as soloists more than any other in SHINee. Why? Beats them, and even Taemin isn’t so sure how he could answer that… Maybe it had something to do with jealousy, with their longing to beat each other and being the best overall… He wonders if Kibum ever felt this guilty for never attending any of his concerts, but then… he starts to wonder why that never bothered him until now. 

The most Kibum would ever do for Taemin is visit him during his dance practices, and even now Taemin can’t even remember the last Time Kibum has stopped by. Either way, he still isn’t so bothered by it, as he feels the same way about it as he does with everything else: they have their busy lives, so what can he expect? Though, he will admit it’s nice always being spoiled and coddled by the other members. He enjoys it when they act like his biggest fans, he thinks maybe it would be nice from Kibum too… but he knows that’s just not how he is.

Kibum is simple, but complicated. If anything, Taemin knows the best way to get to him is through gifts. Kibum only ever expected to be garnished with luxurious things or products of his liking… It makes it easy for the members to buy him gifts every year. Besides that though, he knows Kibum hardly expects much… especially from him. Taemin barely processes Kibum’s last words to him just now, “ _I must be missing you then,” and_ starts to smile fondly.

“I think you do too, Kibummie Hyung,” Taemin lets out with some smugness, suddenly feeling giddy over the fact Kibum missed him enough to expect him to arrive at his premiere… Like, when would he ever expect that of him? Taemin could giggle, it’s almost too perfect; he even lets out a choke of laughter when he starts to imagine what in the world Kibum could have even been thinking…

“Are you really laughing?” questions Kibum immediately but Taemin quickly responds with a no. He contains composure before continuing with the conversation.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there Kibum, if I had known I would have tried my best to fix my schedule for you.” Taemin lets out almost in a taunting tone.

“Stop that, you don’t have to pretend Taemin,” this time Taemin really does let out his laughter, but it’s genuine and he can feel Kibum’s smile through the phone beaming back at him too. All the annoyance was probably feeling gone for sure. “I don’t think I would’ve been able to stay calm if you did show up though, so I’m a bit glad you didn’t after all haha. Thank you for saving me from embarrassment for broken expectations instead!”

“Oh you’re welcome hyung,” laughs Taemin again. “I can only imagine you with your eyes and mouth wide, either fuming I came to crash your party for the attention or practically drooling over my beauty.” He has fun with it.

“Come over so I can slap you, I’m really regretting this call now. Why did you answer anyway, shouldn’t you be sleeping?” Kibum asks Taemin suddenly, reminding him that he should be… for some reason, all his exhaustion vanished. He brushes it off though, and asks Kibum the same instead. Kibum answers, “If you couldn’t tell, I was being angry over you… I’m over it now though, like I said. It was silly.”

Taemin sighs once more; if that’s what he says then there is no denying it, Kibum was most likely thinking of him (he probably has been). The movie comes hurtling back into Taemin’s mind…

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise Kibummie,” he says suddenly, without really thinking about what he had just let out. Kibum’s laughter is heard from the other line, but he can tell he’s stepped away from the phone. Taemin sits on his continuing adrenaline, wishing he could smack Kibum on the head too… 

“Okay well, now you answer me this instead.” Kibum returns to the phone in a snort, “Are you okay? I feel like your behavior has been weird.”

“What do you mean? We’ve only been talking for two days.”

“That’s enough for me to tell, Tae. If anything, I could tell right away…” Taemin bites on his lip, unsure of what to say. He figures continuing where they left off prior was his best choice.

“Nothing hyung, it’s just like what I told you… I miss you.” He swallows, “Watching your movie only made me miss you a whole lot more.” He hears Kibum sigh out loud now.

“I obviously miss you too, I thought I was going to see you today… don’t keep making me say it.” Taemin can’t help but smile slightly.

“Your movie was so good…”

“And I’m sorry it gave you an existential crisis,” Kibum lets out another laugh, “it was the concept, right? Trust me, I couldn't sleep for a handful of days when shooting this movie. My mind was restless!” Taemin nods to himself, content to hear what he assumed was correct. How could Kibum not be thrown back by this concept too? And now Taemin is scared of saying anything more to him—afraid of exposing his growing thoughts of suddenly wanting to date him… or, what Kibum is calling it, his _‘existential crisis’_. He goes ahead with the conversation anyway.

“Remember how I was asking you if you’d shave your head for me in another universe, hyung?” He hears Kibum agree with him while also feeling his own throat go dry. He isn’t sure why he’s decided to keep talking now but can’t stop himself nonetheless, “Some of me hopes there is a dimension you do… Maybe in a dimension we can see each other all the time, whenever we really want.” Taemin swallows to keep himself from coughing on a dry throat; Kibum keeps from replying, it only makes Taemin go back to feeling nervous.

“You know it’s funny I even remembered the old spin the bottle story today too, I wonder if stuff like that happened too. There’s just so many possibilities...” Kibum stretches on with his silence, Taemin can’t even be sure he’s still on the line, “Hyung?”

“I forgot to ask you. Are you drunk, Taemin?” Kibum asks in an extremely serious tone, suddenly turning the atmosphere from easy going to stark, and almost frightening. Taemin can’t help but wonder if he said something wrong, again…

“No? Why would I be drunk?” he hears yet another sigh escape from the other side of the line.

“I don’t know Taemin, I’m sorry… Like I said, you’ve been acting so weird, I just—“ Taemin only grips onto his phone harder waiting for Kibum to finish, but is never granted the satisfaction when he hears him groan instead. “It’s only getting late Taemin, I think we should go to bed now…” 

Taemin starts to feel cold when he hears those words come from Kibum so suddenly, because now every thought and memory that has been haunting him these few days come rushing at him all in one go. It all hits him like a train, and he thinks of hanging up right now to save him the trouble. He can’t think of anything else to say back to Kibum now, and is certain there’s no way of convincing him to stay and talk anyway…

He wishes Kibum was telling him those words in person, and on his bed too. He wishes it was easier to talk to Kibum about all this, and he wishes Kibum could just get hit with the same epiphany too... He feels defeated, again; just like the plenty of other times in the past he had to part ways with Kibum. Why? Why does it ALWAYS have to be this way?

“I’m going to hang up now okay, Taemin?” Taemin snaps out of his thinking when Kibum’s voice emerges from the phone again. The sadness that was slowly starting to creep into Taemin’s heart feels heavy, and he can only let out a small _‘okay’_ in response to Kibum’s random goodbye.

When Kibum hangs up, Taemin throws his phone and stares straight into the darkness. He’s alone again, and feels like a total fool. More than anything he’s tired, and he’s annoyed that Kibum is doing this to him without even being aware...

Now, he loses his sleep with more anxiety than ever; he’s not sure he can keep things quite normal between them anymore… He’s scared of his own impulse, and what’s to come.

* * *

_**Four.** _

Kibum sits at his dining table with a cup of warm tea after a long day of binge watching dramas—he allowed himself the day off for once, but he mostly did it as a reward to himself for the release of his new movie. He hopes it does just as well as the last one did… Though, he doesn’t think this new one is nearly as intriguing with the concept, so he will have to wait and see what the public thinks of it. 

“ _The Other Dimension”_ was a critical hit, and certainly an important staple to Kibum’s career as a whole. People all over enjoyed the movie a whole lot more than he honestly expected, most of them entranced by the concept itself which isn’t surprising to him at all. He specifically chose to work on that movie because of the concept, and for the months he had worked on it, it definitely impacted him… Just as it seems to be impacting Taemin now.

He sighs to himself and grips onto his cup of tea, he thinks he should probably text Taemin and give some apology for the day prior but he’s hesitant. He’s been accusing Taemin of acting weird but refuses to admit he is too; and he knows it’s all because of that movie reentering his life through Taemin himself. He wonders to what extent Taemin has been taking his thoughts because of it—he wonders if he also finds himself late at night wishing things could be different too. He’s actually sure he does, considering the texts he’s been receiving after all...

Suddenly, his doorbell goes off causing Comme Des and Garçon to begin barking loudly. He scrunches his eyebrows and gives a look to his phone for the time: it’s just turned 9pm, and he wasn’t expecting any guests. He hears the door go off again, only making his dogs go more mad and reaches up to rub his temples—he’s in no mood to deal with this right now. It’s not even 10 seconds before the door goes off again, and now Kibum really thinks he’ll get a headache; he can only think of the possibility of saesangs and that only makes him feel worse. He’s proven wrong, however, when his phone starts to ring instead. He hushes his pets as best as he can, and answers the phone to Taemin…

“Hyung, uh… Are you home?” He doesn’t even allow Kibum to greet himself. It all makes sense to Kibum then, and he starts to laugh out loud. He truly cannot believe this kid…

“If that’s you at my door, you better turn around and walk out of this building right now!” Kibum exclaims right away, going back to rubbing his temples. He can’t decide if this was a better surprise than saesangs, Taemin has really been out to torture him.

“You changed the code to your door didn’t you? I tried the one I already knew, twice, but it didn’t work…” Taemin ignores Kibum completely.

“I changed it as soon as I was discharged from the military, you don’t remember? There was no way I’d let you break in alone after that one time!”

“Huh?” Taemin seems confused, “But I’ve been to your house SO many times after that?” Kibum can’t help but to let out another laugh.

“Yes, my sweet Taeminnie… While you were WITH me.” He sighs; Kibum can practically see the wheels in Taemin’s head turn while silence ensues.

“Can you just let me in Kibum hyung, please?” Taemin signs out after a few seconds, but he doesn’t even have to ask twice as Kibum is already making his way down to his front door, hanging up his phone in the process. He shakes his head to himself—he’s not sure why he’s caving in so easily, but then again… it has always been very hard for him to say no to Taemin after all.

That’s been no secret to anyone, actually… Taemin is putty in Kibum’s hands just as much as Kibum is in Taemin’s.

**. . .**

_Kibum finishes taping up another box before moving on to continue packing even more clothes into the next one. He’s completely submerged in himself and his thoughts as he sings along to Lady GaGa and packs away his things; he feels more than ready to finally have his own place and be on his own for the first time in his life…_

_Without noticing, Taemin walked in, standing and watching him by the doorway, “Wow, you were really being serious about moving…” he speaks up loudly, scaring Kibum and throwing him off his groove._

_“Of course I was, I—can you let people know when you barge into their rooms?” Taemin giggles at Kibum’s sudden reaction, and makes his way further into the room, receiving an evil stare in return. “Is there something you need Taeminnie? I’m kind of busy, if you can’t notice…”_

_“What do you mean, hyung? Can’t your maknae stop by for some company now or something?” He moves to make some room on Kibum’s messy bed, and sits beside the piles of clothes and junk Kibum was planning on getting packed. He takes a look at everything around him and makes a stinky face, “If anything, maybe you need some help?”_

_Kibum rolls his eyes as he walks by the speaker blasting in his room in order to lower it, now that he’s sure Taemin won’t leave him alone. He hadn’t noticed how horribly messy his room has gotten until now actually, and now that Taemin suggests it, help doesn’t like a bad idea after all, “You know what? You could help me actually…”_

_Taemin’s eyes suddenly widened, “Oh hyung, I was only joking!”_

_“Nope!” Kibum cracks out with a laugh. He walks up to Taemin to start pushing him off his bed, “You’re helping me! I am not letting you just sit in here and stare at me,” he pushes Taemin one more time. “Come on now, up!” This time, Taemin rolls his eyes instead but jumps off the bed anyway. He makes his way to a box and pouts at it before throwing random things in it, earning a smack from Kibum, “Do it well, or I will kick you out.”_

_"Kibummie hyung, if I’m going to be honest, I just stopped by because I’m eager to sleep. I can hear your music from our room, and I wasn’t sure you were this serious until… Well, now.” He turns to Kibum suddenly, “I don’t care about helping you right now. Why do you want to leave so suddenly?”_

_Kibum finds himself a bit shocked at this outburst and stands feeling heavy, this is all so sudden from Taemin. When he first announced he was going to move out, no one else made a big deal; if anything, they all shrugged it off and Kibum is sure Minho praised the heavens… he honestly doesn’t think moving out is a big deal, they’re all adults after all. Kibum was even going to turn 22 soon…_

_“Because I wanted to? What other explanation or reason could I possibly have?” Kibum replies to Taemin with a somber look, he can hardly tell what Taemin is feeling—he is just looking around the room, observing the boxes being stacked._

_“I wonder what this room will look like when it’s finally clean for once,” sighs Taemin out with a smile, Kibum shakes his head at that and doesn’t say a word to him. Taemin slowly begins to pick up some things lying around the room after Kibum does too, “Maybe I’ll move in here, it would be nice to have my own room for once…” he pauses and looks to Kibum, “Would you still visit?”_

_“I don’t know Taeminnie,” huffs out Kibum, finishing another box. He looks back to Taemin, who only looks more somber than he did a few moments ago. Kibum tucks in his lips, “You could visit me though, is that okay too?”_

_Taemin smiles right away, “Yea, I guess that’s okay… If anything I just want to see more of your puppy.”_

_“Oh, how could I forget?” Kibum replies with a bit of sarcasm, as he knows he’s lying. All his members have been head over heels in love with his new dog Comme Des—they’ve recently adopted a habit to care for the dog more than for Kibum himself (as a joke of course). Kibum knows that isn’t Taemin’s whole truth though, he can see it written on his face._

_Taemin, in all honesty, could admit that he is feeling sad over the fact that someone in his group is finally leaving their dorm… They’ve been living together for so long, and he’s gotten so used to the lifestyle,.. he never really thought this day would ever come. He knows he can’t stop Kibum, and even if he isn’t completely upset about it… he can’t help but to start feeling depressed when he thinks of all the meals Kibum will now make without being able to eat it too. Or, he thinks of the boredom he will feel when the other members are busy, and Kibummie is doing skin care in the bathroom… He thinks of all the arguments that will ensue, without Kibum defending him or being on his side; Or even when he has to wake Kibum up in the mornings, because he’s refusing to leave bed for dance practice…_

_It didn’t take him long to realize there will be so much about his hyung that he will miss (more than he would have the others but that’s not to compare). He almost wishes Kibum could just pack him along too… He continues sighing to himself multiple times the longer he and Kibum continue to pack away everything, they could until they grow tired. By the time Kibum’s bed is finally clear, he suggests going to bed. Taemin’s heart suddenly skips a beat at the words… he’s only stared at oddly by Kibum when he continues standing in the same spot._

_“You can go back to your room now Taemin, thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it.” Kibum lets out a smile, and in an attempt to properly bring up Taemin’s mood, he walks up to him and gives a big hug… Taemin takes his time to hug back, and squeezes hard by the time he does; they both feel warmth through it. Though, when Kibum tries to pull back, Taemin latches on instead._

_“Kibum hyung, I'm really excited for you... really.” Taemin starts to blink non stop while holding onto him, and takes a giant gulp, “Just know, I will miss you. A whole lot, okay?” Kibum tries to look down at Taemin but is smothered instead as he tightens the hug again; suddenly, it makes Kibum realize that maybe he would miss his sweet little maknae. Living with his members may be a disaster most of the time, and he can hardly stand the fights anymore. At least Taemin never bugged him as much as some of the others... So, he hugs back with fondness, giving into Taemin’s embrace and closing his eyes as he thinks of their friendship. The peace of it all is only broken when Taemin pulls back finally, and asks, “Hyung, can I please sleep with you tonight?”_

_“Huh?” Kibum snaps back immediately, completely caught off guard. Taemin’s talent at doing that to him is really too good…_

_“Please, I just don’t want to wake Jjong in case he’s already asleep—and… what if I even wake up your dog? It was hard sneaking past him the first time… I’m already here anyway.” Taemin explains himself immediately, ready to retort whatever Kibum may throw at him. Kibum, on the other hand, can’t even believe the situation, if anything it just became clear this was Taemin’s intention from the moment he showed up at the door. He stares at Taemin with a gaping mouth, taking a deep breath before accepting the fact he has to say yes. Taemin leaps in joy the second he nods his head to let him know…_

_Though, in the end Kibum figures he can’t get too mad. Taemin did help him after all, and he probably got a lot more done than he would’ve alone thanks to that… He also can’t complain too much about sharing his bed with Taemin too, since there’s no denying doing so is a habit of theirs; he actually starts to feel a strange spark the moment Taemin lies down to his right after climbing into bed with him in the dark. It’s been a while since they've shared a bed like this… both of them hold their breath as sudden tension enters the room within minutes of somewhat awkward silence._

_Kibum can read the situation right away however, and isn’t surprised when Taemin speaks up, “Will you miss me hyung?” Kibum sighs fondly. Without hesitation, he reaches down and grabs onto Taemin’s hand while going to face him; Taemin shuffles to face him back right after._

_“DUH,” is all Kibum let's out before suddenly going in to kiss Taemin. Taemin, only slightly caught off guard, kisses back happily, finally winning what he was going after. The ultimate prize in his plan for tonight: Kibum’s kiss. He melts into it as Kibum starts to peck at his top lip and holds onto his hand tighter… He wants to move closer—feel Kibum’s warmth on his body—until Kibum breaks the kiss, “You are my cute Taeminnie after all; always so good despite his evil schemes and annoying laugh. I can guarantee you… I will miss you the most, does that make you feel better?”_

_Taemin can tell Kibum is smiling at him through the dark, and smiles himself as he dives in for another comforting kiss; they continue to melt into each other and kiss for a while until Kibum starts to yawn into Taemin’s mouth, and Taemin can no longer keep his grip tight in Kibum’s hand… While diving into slumber, Kibum floats in his butterflies, wondering why Taemin has to be the way he is._

**. . .**

When Kibum finally opens his door, Taemin stands as confident as he can—holding out a two dozen bouquet of roses. He feels nervous, but mostly silly and hopes Kibum will appreciate his efforts. Kibum, however, shuts the door on its back closed right away.

“Hey!” shouts Taemin immediately, reaching out as best as he can to slam on the door, “Let me in, I know you’re still there!” He reaches over to bang the door again; Kibum coincidentally opens the door at the same time and earns a smack right to the nose instead. “Oh shit!”

“Okay now I definitely don’t want you here,” Kibum cups his nose, scrunching his face from the impact but not in any pain. Taemin gets close to him to examine his face and make sure he’s okay, but Kibum only pushes back, “You can leave the flowers here though, thank you for that!”

“Hyung, please I didn’t mean that.” He looks down to the roses he’s holding, and shoves them into Kibum’s arms, “Go ahead and take the roses, but let me in too.” Kibum looks down to the roses after Taemin’s request. Immediately, he can feel his heart strings tug and he’s at a loss; Taemin almost gasps when Kibum takes them from him.

“Go back and get me more after that smack, and then I’ll let you in,” Kibum smiles down to the bouquet and breathes it in. They smell beautiful, he doubts Taemin picked them himself… “So, who picked these? And more importantly, what are they for?”

“They’re for yesterday Kibum, for your premiere and all… I said I would make it up to you, remember? I picked them right now, after leaving a last minute interview…” Taemin replies, following Kibum back and up into his apartment. He can’t see, but he hears Kibum giggle.

“Tae, really!” laughs out Kibum, finally taking a step into his actual apartment, “What am I going to do with you?” Taemin only ignores him and looks around the apartment as Kibum makes his way to his dining table, and starts to display the roses… Comme Des and Garçons run up to him immediately, showering him completely in love and the sloppiest puppy kisses. He notices hardly anything has changed, although it’s only been about half a year since he’s last been here… The same old bouquet of roses Taemin gave him years ago are still visible in the main area of his living room as always though; Kibum has never been one to rearrange his decorations after all. Taemin’s heart begins to float when he sees them.

“Keep these new ones along with those, okay hyung?” he points to the old bouquet, catching Kibum’s attention to it and making him shake his head—the smile on his face isn’t missed though, and Taemin smiles to himself in fondness. He knows for a fact he’s won Kibum over with his roses; and he’s not wrong.

“These are beautiful Taemin, thank you.” Kibum finishes displaying his new bouquet on the table and reaches over for his tea again. He turns around to face him, and they stare at each other like that. Kibum’s hair reaches his eyes, but it’s not very long in the back; He’s strayed away from consistently bleaching it after the military… If only Taemin did the same. He thinks Kibum looks good, all around, even his body looks to be in good condition as always; he swallows when he looks back up to see his lips.

“I’m glad you liked them after all,” He walks closer to Kibum, reaching down to pet Garçons one more time before finally reaching him. “I tried to get flowers to match your beauty after all.”

“Oh shut up Taemin,” Kibum laughs yet again, walking into his kitchen and placing his cup down, “I can see you’re not lying though!” He winks at Taemin when he turns back to him with a giant smile on his face, “Now tell me, what did you have for dinner?”

Taemin hopes Kibum can’t notice him blushing, especially because he knows what’s about to come. Without saying a word, he only shakes his head and takes a seat at the kitchen table, watching Kibum walk further into his kitchen and wrap an apron around his slim waist. It makes him swallow hard…

“I’ve been kind of snacking on things all day, so I wasn’t really planning on a big dinner today but…” Kibum turns around to face Taemin again, “I obviously can’t let my intruder go hungry.”

Taemin then smiles brightly at Kibum, being granted what he was expecting and becoming overjoyed. Due to their interaction yesterday, he wasn’t expecting Kibum to allow him to stay very long (let alone welcome him in completely), and it’s been a good while since Taemin has had any of Kibum’s cooking… How can he stop himself from fully blushing now? Kibum’s cooking is some of his favorites in the whole world, it has been since debut…He sits as comfortably as he can in his seat and watches Kibum go to work and they start small talk. They chat about the smaller details of their recents lives, catching up with everything they forget to let each other know in the midst of their busy lives. Slowly, the aroma of Kibum’s apartment fills with the scent of Alfredo pasta, and Taemin sighs to himself as he starts to feel giddy inside; he’s being reminded of more memories, more times he spent that were exactly like this… He really did miss it, and he’s happy he made the random choice to show up after all.

By the time Kibum started plating, Taemin had already made his way into the living room to play with the dogs. He can hear him laughs to himself along with the running paws of the dogs; he doesn’t know exactly what Taemin is really after, though he’s afraid he may have an idea, but he can’t complain over the feeling he feels deep in his chest at this very: warm, and at home. And he knows it’s all because of that laughter he hears in his room. He decides to take the food to the living room and eat there, gaining Taemin’s attention the moment he walks in with his steaming plates.

“Oh hyung, you’re finished!” Taemin jumps up from the floor, where Comme Des was on top of him, with a giant gummy smile plastered on his face. Kibum hands him a plate before taking a seat on the couch beside them. “Gosh I’m so excited Kibummie, really! This is such a treat, I wasn’t expecting this.” Taemin says excitedly while he takes a seat next to Kibum. He immediately goes down into slurping up the noodles as furious as he can. He swallows it down loudly, “It’s as good as ever, yes!”

He receives laughter in return from Kibum, “It’s my pleasure Taem. I know I made the right choice, since you’re obviously starving.” He dives down to finally take a bite himself and continues to watch Taemin munch on his food like there’s no tomorrow; he melts at the way he stuffs his cheeks full, nothing has or ever will change about him will it?

Now, he’s feeling more warm than before, and the sudden twist he feels his heart do suddenly frightens him (quite a lot). Taemin deepens that fear too, when he speaks up after a long while of enjoying his meal.

“You know, I haven’t heard anything in a while and,” he pauses to look around the room quickly, “it doesn’t seem like there’s a presence of another person here, so I just have to ask…” Kibum bites his lip waiting for the question, “Did you really break up with your last partner?”

Taemin blinks multiple times at once while staring at Kibum and waiting for a response; he hopes his question doesn’t start to cause odd behavior, and in fact he’s almost doubting himself for bringing it up in the first place but he really was curious… Kibum was alone on a Friday night after all, and skipped dinner of all things. If Taemin knows any better, he knows Kibum would’ve at least ordered take out for a lazy movie night with his significant other. And after his self discovery of being in love with him just the other day… Well…

“You’re right, I don’t think I told many people…” sighs out Kibum, reaching over to collect Taemin’s now empty plate from his small hand. Taemin feels his skin crawl when he feels Kibum’s touch on his fingers, and that same cold feeling starts to return. He tries not to panic, but can tell on Kibum’s face that he is trying too. “I haven’t been dating much recently, I actually broke up with my last boyfriend a year ago I think?” Taemin gasps at that, totally unaware, Kibum can feel his heart start to accelerate and goes back to biting on his lip, “The last person I went on a date with was this very nice woman… I—I don’t know, with my age now I just figured I should just have my family after all but… I didn’t feel much, and concluded I didn’t want to.”

Kibum stands up after finishing his sentence, heading back towards the kitchen after starting to feel stuffy and trapped on the couch. Taemin pursues him immediately, shocked with the information he had just received and now very eager; that cold feeling he hates so much starts to feel melted away, “Wait, Kibum you’re being serious right now?” Kibum turns back with a sharp stare after placing the dishes in the sink.

“Why would I even lie about that?” he lets out in reply, starting to feel more anxious and like a cornered animal; especially with the look in Taemin’s eye… He’s looking at him with so much hunger, but it’s different from when he was eating the pasta, and Kibum knows it’s definitely not the same lustful hunger he’s seen behind closed doors… His heart is just about ready to pop out of his chest when Taemin makes his way closer to him.

“Don’t feel bad hyung,” Taemin says taking his final steps in front of Kibum, he can notice Kibum’s chest heaving, “If it makes you feel better, I don’t think I’ve ever told you I’ve been single too… Not as long as you but—I also never been in a relationship longer than a few months,” he laughs in an attempt to get Kibum to smile back at him again. It proves a bit successful, but Kibum rolls his eyes along with it.

“Oh, whatever Taemin…. Thank you for that.” Kibum takes a deep breath through his nose, “I already feel less lonely.” He’s thrown off guard when Taemin throws his hands up in the air and lets out a giant sigh of relief.

“So then you agree?” Taemin says loudly and suddenly, “We should go on a date tomorrow! I’ll cancel all my schedules right now!”

“EXCUSE ME?” Kibum screams back immediately, his anxiety reaches a peak but doesn’t stop him from closing the small distance between him and Taemin; Taemin only holds his hands open, with a dummy’s smile and waiting for a hug. Instead, Kibum punches him on the shoulder, hard. “When did we agree on that?”

Taemin, who is now holding onto his punched and hurting shoulder, only blinks back at Kibum with confusion. “Well OW...” he gulps trying to find a way to avert his situation when he starts to feel the coldness in his heart creep back in yet again; but when remembers how tired his heart is feeling from being left frozen, he’s determined to defeat it and takes his stand anyway, “Just right now, hyung. I think it would be nice…”

“See Taemin, this is what I meant by you acting WEIRD!” Kibum’s heart can’t even keep up anymore and his face starts to glow red as a result. He’s not so sure of what he’s feeling, it annoys him he’s not mad at Taemin but mad at the fact he saw this coming… He shouldn’t get mad, if anything he figures it’s a bit overdue… He can see the sudden hunger in Taemin’s eyes slowly start to trickle away, and it makes him sigh. “Do you want to explain yourself a bit before I try to kick you out now?” Kibum gives Taemin the benefit of the doubt.

Taemin, who hadn’t broken his eye contact from Kibum since the moment he punched him, tucks in his lips and breathes in deep; his chance to melt the same old cold is finally here… “We’re both alone… we miss each other… I just thought, well why not? You know… I know I’ve already mentioned it, but that movie really turned my world upside down.”

“It really is that damn movie wow.” Kibum lets out before Taemin can finish explaining himself. He watches him reach up and push his hair back in thought, finally noticing the distress written on his face; Kibum is sweating now and leans back against his counter for support. Taemin walks in front of him again, still ready to fight as best he can.

“Kibum hyung please listen to me. It—it can just be one date, for fun maybe? I know we’ll have fun, and I KNOW you know it too. He sighs while examining more of Kibum’s body language; he can tell he’s uncomfortable and it makes him sad… It’s the opposite of what he wants right now, so he slowly reaches down to take a hold of Kibum’s hand. They feel sticky, “If you miss me, spend the day with me. Like old times, maybe?”

“Taemin, I—I don’t know,” is all Kibum can say back to him, without looking him in the eye. He doesn’t stop Taemin from holding his hand though, Taemin keeps his grips on it and tightens it. He allows Kibum some time to calm down by staying quiet, and obverses him closely instead. Although he’s all sweaty and red, Taemin can’t help but to think he looks gorgeous anyway; he looks like he is glowing. He especially curses himself when he notices a tiny amount of Alfredo sauce on the corner of Kibum’s mouth; there’s no way he can kiss him now to clean it off, but wow does he wish he could.

“Let me buy you something—in celebration of your movie…” Kibum immediately smiles at that, totally defrosting any cold feeling; Taemin knows he can win now, “Hyung, please! Don’t make me beg now!”

“Weren’t those roses for the movie Taem? You don’t have to buy me anything, it’s fine…”

“Okay then, buy me something,” Taemin blurts out before Kibum can officially blow him off. It causes Kibum to finally look back at him with lifted eyebrows, so he continues, “When is the last time you gave me a gift, huh? I’ve accomplished a whole lot too.”

Kibum finally laughs at him, relieving him of complete anxiety, though the nerves left start turning into butterflies, “How are you even real?” He finally tugs at Taemin’s hand in his, receiving a smile in return from him, “You’re trying to persuade ME to take YOU and on date and buy YOU things.” He lets out another chuckle when Taemin only nods his head, smiling like a small child and he can notice the fire spark back in his eyes.

“I know you’ll end up wanting something too so please, let’s just go. It’s so spontaneous too, I’m so excited if you say yes…” Kibum knows at that moment, he’s lost; when Taemin tilts his head at him and pouts out his bottom lip in exchange from the smile. It’s not like he’s wrong after all, it’s not like either of them are married with children, unlike two other oldies he works with too… He figures, if he can get a gift out of it too, then what can really go wrong?

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt so much,” Kibum sighs out, feeling Taemin grab onto his other hand and jump in joy once more. His heart is completely thawed; he feels victorious. The dogs have entered the kitchen by now too, jumping along with Taemin’s overall excitement.

“Oh hyung, thank you! Let me cancel my plans right now,” he lets go to reach down for his phone, and Kibum starts to laugh again when he sees the excitement written all over his maknae’s face. He can’t even try to argue about going out tomorrow, and makes a mental note to cancel his own schedules as well… His heart starts to race again the more he watches Taemin smile so happily to himself; instead of fear though, Kibum only feels nervous, and he braces himself for the day to come as he knows Taemin is only going to try harder to sway him into maybe doing more…

When Taemin finishes his massive text to his manager, he goes back to holding onto one of Kibum’s hands. His smile still hasn’t faded, “We should go later in the afternoon, so we can shop and get dinner right after!”

“That actually sounds perfect, Taemin.” Kibum smiles fondly, and tightens his grip on Taemin’s hand. 

“By the way hyung,” Taemin reaches up randomly to Kibum’s face, startling him in the movement as he puts his finger on his lip. This time, Taemin's heart begins to race, “You still have sauce on your mouth…”

Taemin keeps his arm and hand up in Kibum’s face, awkwardly standing for a good minute. Both of them hold their breaths the moment silence ensues; Taemin looks deep into Kibum’s eyes and suddenly feels an urge in him he truly can’t control. He’s not even sure what he’s doing when the hand he’s pointing to Kibum with snakes around to cup his cheek instead, and slowly walks closer with his eyes glued to the lips right in front of him… The lips he’s been craving all week, the lips of the person he loves… Kibum turns his head however, the exact second Taemin is about to close the gap between them. The room stands still, and they continue in their position, even more awkward and unsure of what to do…

“Hyung…” he breathes out, so close to Kibum’s face; he can smell the moisturizer on his skin. It smells sweet.

“No kissing before the first date Tae…” Kibum doesn’t look back at him when he lets go of his hand, he starts to walk away from the close proximity instead. He reaches up to wipe off the sauce on his mouth, “Don’t get so ahead of yourself, okay?” Taemin stands there, trying his best not to start feeling defeated since he did take a major win just now—but feels extremely confused anyway. He figures Kibum is taking this idea of a ‘date’ seriously and wants to keep it traditional (or maybe he’s doing it to annoy him). But then again… it also looks like he’s about to pass out.

He follows Kibum, who is actually making his way down to the entrance of his apartment. Taemin wants to see if Kibum is okay, but he can sense he’s about to be kicked out; he doesn’t even take the time to say goodbye to the dogs as he rushes to keep up with Kibum, fastening his pace when they leave the kitchen. Taemin doesn’t even try to refuse by the time Kibum reaches the door and grabs onto the handle; he keeps his distance, and when Kibum finally looks back at him, his eyes are somber, but at least he looks all right… He lets out a giant sigh and takes a step forward.

“I didn’t mean to try to kiss you Kibum,” he continues to get closer to Kibum while rubbing the back of his head. Kibum tilts his head and smiles softly; he sighs, figuring that if Taemin feels any way he’s feeling too… he’s only surprised he didn’t try it first.

“It’s okay Taemin… I’m not mad,” he opens the door slowly, and holds his other arm out for Taemin to hug him—it’s quick with one arm and he tries his best to not hold him back when he finally leaves.

* * *

_**Part One End** _


	2. Part Two

**Part Two**

* * *

  
  


**_Four (continued)._ **

When Taemin gets home from Kibum’s apartment, he still feels as confused as he did when he left; and although the negative feelings that were lingering over him the nights before are practically gone now, he’s not happy with this new feeling either… It doesn’t feel like he’s won anything, but he’s going on a date with Kibum… How does this make sense again?

He huffs out a sigh of frustration, finally jumping into bed after a long time of washing up and thinking hard in the shower. His shower was… interesting to say the least. Spending his night with Kibum seems to have finally started bringing out the darker thoughts involving his recent dilemma; especially after getting so close to Kibum again after so long. For some reason the memory of seeing pasta sauce on Kibum’s lips really makes Taemin want to cry… why couldn’t he just kiss him?

Before he knows it, the time is beyond late—so, shutting off the room’s light, he throws his cover over his head and kicks his legs around a bit. Annoyance starts to creep slowly into Taemin’s emotions; the more he thinks of the situation, the more he realizes Kibum is trying to avoid something… Though, it’s not even like he’s trying to completely avoid HIM, and so it only makes even less sense to Taemin. He really thinks one peck to the lips wouldn’t have hurt, he can’t help but pout like a child…

But then, his mind begins to think deeper, and suddenly, more and more ideas follow after Taemin lingers on the image of pasta sauce… If they did kiss, who knows if they would just end there. Taemin realizes this now, which is why everything about this is so annoying to him now. Usually… Kibum isn’t one to refuse him, and pursues him just as much if anything; so, why is he being like this now? He’s single after all...

“Ugh!” Taemin groans, kicking just one more time. He takes a deep breath in order to calm down just a bit. He knows he’s not usually this hot headed… he just can’t help himself the more he starts to crave Kibum’s touch. He closes his eyes to allow his brain to fill with images of Kibum’s lips again, or his hands—how he holds his cooking utensils with a tight grip… always looking so graceful and delicious… He wishes Kibum didn’t turn his head, he wishes he licked off that sauce, and granted a different white liquid instead... Taemin gulps and ignores his hard on as best he can in order to fall asleep.

**. . .**

_The first day of SMTOWN Chile was a wrap; everyone in the company started to either make their way back to their hotels, or out and about into the city of Santiago—Taemin and Kibum were no different of course. As they changed out of their wardrobes, they agreed on simply drinking back in their hotel rooms, feeling a bit worn out from their long travels and the first day of performing._

_Taemin keeps a sneaky eye on Kibum while he changes; his arms look really full right now which make him appear more beefy, it makes Taemin want to lose his mind with lust (he hasn’t been able to keep his hands off Kibum since they left Seoul). He sighs and thinks of how well Kibum’s gloves look on him, especially when he performs his songs in them, sweating like mad and breathing heavy. Today was even better too, considering he also wore a thick choker to complete the look; he really is a genius at costumes and wardrobes… Taemin looks over to their stylists, who were putting away their sweaty clothes of the day. He looks out for the gloves, and notices they don’t pack them away. Instead, they’re left by the vanity—probably since they don’t get as dirty as the actual clothing they sweat in, and to already be ready for the next day. He gets an idea… an extremely horny one._

_Their own staff finally starts to leave within a while, and hardly anyone is in the dressing room anymore. When Kibum and Taemin finally make it to leave on their own, Taemin stops in their tracks suddenly, “Oh hyung, just wait for me with everyone in the car… I think I forgot something.” He says it quickly, blinking away and walking back to their dressing room in a haste, eager to retrieve ‘his’ item. Entering the room, he spots the gloves right away, and hitches his breath… he only hopes his plans will work back in the hotel._

_When he picks up the single white glove from the pair lying on the vanity, he suddenly gets the urge to try it on… he’s not sure why it hasn’t come to him until now, he’s sure they would look good on him too (if not better). He sees he’s right, when he slips it into his hand and checks himself out in the mirror—it’s definitely much too big for his small hand though, so he figures with a better fit or different style, he can totally rock this…_

_“What are you doing?”_

_Taemin jumps when Kibum’s voice breaks the silence of the room. He spots his figure in the mirror, turning to face him standing past the door—he already made his way in._

_“I can see you wearing my glove in the mirror, Taemin…” Kibum starts to cackle, hard._

_Taemin furrows his brows, “Hey, don’t laugh at me!”. Kibum doesn’t listen, and keeps his laughter up until it dies down the moment he walks in front of Taemin._

_“Why are you even wearing that,” Kibum asks, reaching down to grab onto the gloves hand after Taemin reveals it from behind his back, “Get what you need, the driver is waiting.”_

_Taemin looks away shyly and breaks away from Kibum’s grip, blurting out the truth now that he’s been caught, “I had an idea for you to wear these at the hotel… You look so good in them, watching you today was so mouth watering almost. Then, I realized all of the things we’ve worn or tried… We've never worn gloves.” He looks back to see Kibum already smirking at him; he can feel a blush start to blossom on his cheeks but he’s also getting annoyed. “You better not laugh, this isn’t funny to me hyung. I’m being serious!”._

_He gives Kibum a slight shove, but Kibum holds onto his hand again the moment he does. In a serious—almost scary—voice, he lets out, “Take my glove off Tae, and let’s go.” Now, Taemin is really annoyed… Kibum is being serious. He scrunches his face right at him._

_“You know what, these don’t even look that good on you anyway…” he snaps back instead, ripping his arm out of Kibum’s grip once more. He holds his hand up high, gazing at it and the culprit of the current fight he’s in… he then turns his head over his shoulder and stares at Kibum through the mirror. His face is suddenly blank, and he’s breathing hard, looking straight at Taemin. “I think this definitely looks better on me, I like it a lot…” he turns back to Kibum now feeling smug—staring him right in the eye and going to cup Kibum’s face, “You know maybe I’ll even use this concept as my own… Don’t you agree hyung?”_

_Kibum’s eyes become dark, and he doesn’t say a word to Taemin as he burns holes right back into the brown eyes fluttering at him. The big cheeks smiling at him are making his heart flip in the most annoying way… He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes while he suddenly squats down to his knees. Taemin jumps at the movement, startled and certainly anxious._

_“Hyung! What are you—” his breath hitches, when he feels Kibum place his hands on his thighs. In response and to get him to stop whatever he’s planning on doing, Taemin reaches down, and takes a handful of Kibum’s hair—with his gloved hand._

_Kibum looks up to him, still with the same dark stare but with a small smile. Taemin gulps this time, trying not to get too excited because they’re not particularly private…_

_“Isn’t this what you wanted? If you want to have an attitude then fine. Now you have my glove, it’s on your hand. And that hand can control me if you want…” Taemin stays silent, feeling frozen in his tracks. In another sudden movement, Kibum looks straight forward and buries his face into Taemin’s crotch—which is already starting to bulge._

_“KIBUM…” Taemin gasps loudly, finally yanking him back with a harsh tug. He almost grits his teeth hard, breathing in deep when Kibum looks back up at him with a wanton look; it’s as if a switch was turned on... “Not now!” He manages to choke out, “I said at the hotel, someone will see us here! You even left the door wide open!” He feels Kibum shake his head in his palm._

_“Don’t worry about that Taeminnie…” he whispers it low, and Taemin can tell he’s only waiting to get to work, with the way his grip tightens on his thighs his stare turns into a glare, “I told them you might need help, and not to ask… They’re waiting for us in the car.”_

_Taemin swallows and feels himself start sweating at the sound of Kibum’s words. The sensation on his thighs only makes him melt into Kibum’s glare even further; he almost feels embarrassed he got so hard so soon… the excitement of this was frightening but all too sexy for him. If what he’s saying is true..._

_“Though,” Kibum breaks his thoughts, “they’re bound to come looking after a while, no?” He smiles wide when he sees Taemin’s eyes widen a bit. He doesn’t even say a word back to him when he does use his hand to guide him back to his crotch; Kibum takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. He hasn’t got much time after all…_

_He immediately shoves his face back into Taemin’s head in front of him and aggressively rubs his nose back and forth on it—receiving even more gasps and small tugs in return. He tightens his grip on the thighs in his hands even tighter, feeling up on the slim muscle of Taemin’s physique, something he has always found so attractive… With a slightly harsher tug from Taemin’s hand, he then moves to engulf his bulge over his pants. He doesn’t even get the chance to suck on it before Taemin moans loudly and pulls him back with a violent tug again._

_“Do you want us to get caught? Are you trying to leave a wet stain on my pants or something?” exclaims Taemin, looking down wide-eyed at Kibum._

_Kibum rolls his eyes a tiny bit, “Sorry, it’s not like you weren’t on your way on doing that yourself.” He smirks, leading his hand to release Taemin out of his pants. When he starts doing so, he notices Taemin resting his free hand against the vanity behind him; he’s relaxing… And when he finally frees Taemin’s leaking head, he hears him breathe out. It makes him gulp, and tries not to get too excited, especially when Taemin lightly tugs him back onto him._

_Taemin watches the way Kibum looks up to him, dirty as hell, before closing them and sticking his tongue out wide to lick the underside of his penis. He moans at the sensation, gripping a bit more on Kibum’s hair in his hand; he starts to gape his mouth open as he watches closely. Kibum always gives him amazing blow jobs, they usually infect Taemin in minutes… And that’s because the expressions and sounds that escape from Kibum only sky rocket’s Taemin’s sexual euphoria._

_Kibum keeps his mouth wide open as he continues to lick Taemin’s penis all over, covering him completely in spit and leaving kisses on it whenever he goes down the side. Taemin groans and grits his teeth in a snarl when he sees Kibum open his eyes back up at him, and suddenly engulf him in one go. He bobs his head twice but pops off immediately, licking back at the tip and fluttering his eyes up at Taemin._

_Taemin moans again, trying not to throw his head completely back so he can keep his eyes on what he feels below him; so he can drink in the way Kibum face fucks him…_

_Kibum moans out a bit, “Look at you, you became such a mess so quickly today…” He licks at him again. Taemin, who was starting to feel like he was only being teased, only pulls a bit at Kibum’s hair again; Kibum throws his head back into it._

_“Get to it Kibum, you said we didn’t have much time.” Taemin tightens his grip even more when Kibum only turns his head away, and looks at him with a wicked smile. Taemin shivers at the way he feels Kibum’s hands return around his thighs, “Hyung…”_

_“Make me.”_

_Taemin doesn’t need to hear it twice before he holds his breath and yanks at Kibum’s hair even tighter this time. He lets go of the vanity, and reaches his hand down to Kibum’s face instead, shoving his fingers inside as forcefully as he can. He retracts immediately the moment Kibum bites him, but refuses Kibum an opportunity to speak up after by finally shoving him back into his crotch, being sure Kibum swallows him up once more. Taemin lets out a loud groan, almost trembling at the returning feeling of Kibum’s hot mouth._

_Leaving his hands tight with a grip, he starts to lead Kibum back up and down on him, moaning more whenever he would feel Kibum graze his teeth whenever he’d reach the tip again. Kibum starts to whine as he slobbers on Taemin, enjoying himself at the view of Taemin unraveling above him… He even holds onto his thighs with more force, slowly crawling up and behind to knead his tight ass. With the grip he feels on the back of his head, it only makes it harder to keep his own boner down._

_They haven’t broken eye contact since the moment Kibum threatened Taemin, and now that Kibum starts rolling his eyes back the harder Taemin pushes him down, he can feel himself get close. Kibum can tell too, with the way he starts to draw out his groans and hitch his breath, looking down at him like he’s about to cry. So, he takes some liberty from Taemin’s grasp and starts to bob his head faster, lapping his tongue under him this time. He sees Taemin finally shut his eyes, letting out the loudest moan yet before finally biting his lip. He throws his head back and lets his hand follow along Kibum’s rhythm, who’s only started to move more aggressively with even more of his own accommodating noises. Taemin can’t even bring himself to care over the fact Kibum is being much too loud, feeling himself explode with overbearing heat._

_In a blink of an eye, he grips Kibum’s hair tightly again, pushing him down all the way to the base of his cock. He can hear Kibum moan, rolling his eyes back even more as he holds him there and shakes his head back and forth on him. Taemin feels himself and the way he’s rubbing on the back of Kibum’s warm throat… He finally lets out another loud moan, harshly pulling Kibum back now and keeping his grip tight on him to keep him. With a wet pop, Taemin comes instantly, shooting his load all over Kibum’s face who kept his mouth open at his best attempt to swallow it. Taemin holds onto the vanity once more, to keep himself from collapsing… his chest is heaving._

_“H-Hyung…” breathes out Taemin in a husky voice, trying his best to catch his breath and staring down at Kibum with a totally blissed out face… He tries to loosen his grip and pet Kibum’s head in exchange for the harsh pulls, but Kibum immediately ruins the mood by freeing himself completely. He stands up, wiping his face and staring at the mess on his hand…_

_“Aim a little better next time, okay?” Kibum reaches over to the makeup wipes that were left behind him on the table. “Ugh, I’m glad I took off my makeup now…” He finally looks back at Taemin with a snap, his face is a bit red and his hair is a mess completely. “Okay come on! It’s been long enough, take that off and pull your pants up!” he yells at Taemin then, throwing his wet wipe at him in order to fix his hair._

_Taemin is suddenly thrown back into reality, now remembering where they are after hearing Kibum’s demand and catching the disgusting wipe before it hits him in the face. He cleans himself and dresses quickly—well, as quickly as he can while still bickering with Kibum over the glove… He’s faced defeat however, and leaves the room with Kibum empty handed and being pulled at the arm instead. Kibum rushes them both out of the venue quickly, just running into their manager as they reach the exit._

_No one really suspects a thing, despite the fact both Taemin and Kibum returned without a single thing… Taemin stares out the car window while they finally drive back to their hotel. He examines the streets of Santiago, takes in the city as a whole and sighs. He can’t decide whether he’d prefer roaming around and looking at all the scenery… or roam his fingers and touch the man sitting next to him. He’s not so sure if the adventure of traveling has excited him more than just simply seeing Kibum dance with gloves live for the first time… He feels weird._

_In a sudden urge, he turns to look at Kibum and sees that he was already looking at him. The look on his eyes is confusing to Taemin; they look warm, and comforting, and yet he feels like he could pop a boner… As if on cue, Kibum slightly smiles and looks down to his phone. Instantly, Taemin feels his pocket buzz. Kibum is texting him._

_i didn’t want to tell you until we got to the room but…_

_(typing…)_

_…_

_i have an extra pair of gloves in my luggage._

_Taemin lets out a tiny gasp of surprise, amused at the sudden news. He definitely thinks he’ll pop a boner now… He looks up to see Kibum’s reaction, but sees he’s already averted his eyes away to look out the window instead. Taemin stares at the silhouette before him; he can see the plumpness of his top lip and it makes him smile now too. He starts to feel sort of giddy instead of horny, and takes a deep breath in order to calm down overall—Kibum really knows how to keep him on his toes sometimes, and Taemin can’t deny he enjoys it. His heart is on it’s toes…_

_The car ride couldn’t feel any longer to either of them after that, and when they finally reached their room, a pair of red gloves were presented to Taemin. He wore them for most of the night at Kibum’s request, and usually with a tight grip around his waist to help him ride…_

_The next day, Kibum wears one of those same gloves for his performance._

* * *

**_Five._**

In the morning, Kibum texted Taemin to meet him back at his apartment around 3pm so they could head out together… Now, Taemin stands in front of his door again, just like the night prior but this time he thinks he’s about to pass out. His nerves and anxiety started to boil in his mind the moment he left his own apartment, taking in the situation and the fact that he was really able to get Kibum to go on this date with him… He can’t believe it. He hesitates at ringing the doorbell, chewing on his bottom lip as he takes deep breaths to calm down—he feels out of character. Kibum has really got him messed up…

The moment Kibum swings his door open after Taemin finally rings the bell, his breath is gone. He really thinks he’s about to pass out now… The first thing he notices is Kibum is wearing lipgloss, with the extra shine on his lip catching Taemin’s eye immediately.

“You couldn’t have dressed up a bit better?” Kibum speaks up, “You said this is a date, you look so plain!” He moves past the door to close it behind him. He’s dressed business casual, and in head-to-toe designer as always… Taemin thinks he’s not dressed too out of place, considering he’s just dressed in his own designer jeans and jacket.

“Hyung please, I look fine… we’re not going to a business meeting you know!” Kibum lightly smacks him on the arm.

“Whatever, just tell me I’m overdressed instead.” He starts to walk away, prompting Taemin to follow him. “We are going to go shopping, per your request, and I’m going to buy you earrings.” Taemin stops in his tracks, staring at Kibum’s body and walking further away while he thinks. Kibum stops to turn around when he notices, “Tae?”

“Earrings, hyung?” he asks Kibum with a tilt of his head, slowly taking steps to reach him again. “Why earrings, that’s so random?” Kibum pouts at him.

“Because I want to buy you earrings.” Taemin stands next to him now, still with his head tilted.

“But what if I don’t want earrings?” Kibum then rolls his eyes and starts to walk away again, Taemin keeps up. He keeps from saying anything else, not wanting Kibum to change his mind about going out. When they finally hop into Kibum’s car, he speaks up again.

“I was thinking last night and remembered I saw a pair of really beautiful earrings at one of the jewelry stores about a month ago…” He turns to look at Taemin after seat belting himself in. “We both know I’ve stopped wearing ear jewelry a very long time ago but you…” Taemin feels his heart stop suddenly, as Kibum reaches his hand over to touch his ear. He plays a bit with the dangling cross of his earring and smiles, “You obviously still wear them. Maybe the ones I saw are still there!”

Taemin’s hand quickly grabs onto Kibum’s before he gets the chance to retract it, “I have plenty of earrings hyung, I think I’ll be okay. I was thinking more of another jacket… or a pair of shoes would be nice too.” Kibum only stares back at him, leaving his hand in Taemin’s grasp. He sighs once before finally breaking away from it.

“No.” 

Taemin sits back in disbelief as he watches Kibum start the car and start to drive off, totally disregarding his requests completely. He tries his best from getting annoyed. 

“Hyung this date was to get me something, and I don’t want earrings,” he speaks calmly, turning down the volume of the radio when he does. Kibum doesn’t look at him.

“Taeminnie please, just listen to me!” He sounds like he’s trying to not get annoyed too, “You’ll love them okay, you’ll look beautiful…” Taemin doesn’t say a word back after that, keeping his eyes on Kibum and playing the word _‘beautiful’_ in his head over and over again. He notices Kibum sigh deep and tightens his grip on the wheel after a good minute though... Upon reaching a stop light, he finally looks back at Taemin.

“And don’t forget Tae… you said this date was only for fun. Don’t try to take it too far,” he says it like he’s conflicted, and it confuses Taemin who only feels his anxiety start to creep back up. He almost forgot this was a date from their bickering… but now he’s nervous all over again, and even more since Kibum had to bring up the lie Taemin told last night. Though, Kibum never knew that was a lie of course, and Taemin isn’t sure how to sneak that around him at this point.

“Oh, right…” Taemin hums and finally looks away, turning his attention out the window. He doesn’t say anything more on the subject, but starts to plot in his head anyway; he wants to be sure Kibum has a great time out with him today. Maybe, at the end of the day, Taemin can really persuade him to say this date was a real one… Maybe, he can even get that kiss we wanted last night too—or even better, get him to go out on more dates… Kibum could be his boyfriend…

Taemin gulps at his thoughts, turning back to look at Kibum. The lipgloss he’s wearing is really shiny, it stands out to Taemin from where he’s sitting… Slowly, Taemin feels something warm fill up inside him. He hears Kibum’s voice in his head once more, _‘beautiful'_ , and he smiles to himself.

“By the way hyung, you look beautiful today.” He receives a look from Kibum in return, “Your makeup especially, it’s eye-catching.”

“Taeminnie…” Kibum whispers slowly, failing to hide a smug smile from appearing on his face. In an instant, they both forget their bickering, heads floating high into the clouds with butterflies. “Thank you… I’m glad you noticed my efforts. You know, it’s been a while since…” KIbum pauses then, sucking in his lips before turning away, “…I’ve been on a date.”

Taemin only shows off his own smug smile when he hears the words escape from Kibum. He knows he can win him over with his efforts, “We’re going to have a good time hyung, I just know it.”

“We better, I don’t want my looks to go to waste!” Kibum says, winning a laugh from Taemin in return. Kibum starts to feel warm himself, when he sees a gummy smile shine at him with a beaming glow… He can’t help himself from gulping either, when he slowly starts to realize just how good Taemin looks today. Perhaps his earlier statement was wrong, and if anything, he’s really digging this simple boyfriend vibe he sees… It’s very Taemin. He almost wants to smack him though, he feels like he could really kiss him right now… Instead, he smiles and says in a deep sigh, “Your looks can’t go to waste either Taeminnie, of course.”

“Oh! Now you’ve come around!” Taemin laughs yet again, smacking Kibum lightly on the arm this time as his smile only grows bigger. Kibum can hardly see his eyes squinted through crescent moons, it only makes him feel warmer inside… Taemin reaches over again, but this time, he places his hand tenderly on Kibum’s thigh, “Thank you hyung, I’m sure we’ll be the hottest duo around. No need to worry! And I know we’ll have a great time too…”

“I’m sure we will too,” Kibum says slowly bringing his car to a stop as they finally reach a parking structure. He reaches down to squeeze Taemin’s hand quickly, smiling as big as he can before exiting the vehicle. Taemin’s excitement is only fueled by his smile, and he trails behind Kibum like a puppy would with it’s new owner. They walk side by side, talking and sharing more to each other as they go on; Kibum can really feel Taemin’s giddiness, and it’s only rubbing off of him more and more as they go along the stores and window shop. It has been a very long time since he has gone out with Taemin alone like this, and he’s almost forgotten how much his cheeks start to hurt after the first hour or so… He feels like he hasn’t laughed so much in months. Especially now that Taemin seems to be over the moon with happiness around him. 

By the time they reach the jewelry store, Kibum almost wants to explode from how good he’s started to feel. He’s sure Taemin has started feeling it too, even more so after he was able to purchase Kibum a gift after all. He was able to win Kibum over with his first attempt at asking when they both first spotted the winning prize: a one-of-a-kind beret. At first, Taemin had wanted it for himself, but when he saw the longing anguish in Kibum’s eyes, well… Kibum didn’t even think twice the moment Taemin blinked his eyes in his direction. Now, they stand surrounded by jewelry of many kinds and Taemin isn’t sure what to think…

He follows Kibum as they make their way further into the store; Kibum walks like he’s on a mission, immediately spotting a shop employee and approaching them. Taemin stays to himself, continuing to observe the sparkle and shine around him as he can hear Kibum ask about a certain pair of earrings… By now, Taemin actually thinks he wouldn’t mind a pair of earrings after all—seeing all the glamour around him now is giving him a taste for it. In fact, he slowly starts to walk towards the direction of a fairly large ring by the time Kibum finally calls him over. Taemin sees he’s still with the employee and bent over the counter completely as he walks towards their direction…

“Look, here they are Taeminnie! Aren’t they gorgeous?” Kibum jumps up from the counter, startling Taemin from the sudden surprise and allowing him a view of the jewelry he was covering below them. There, Taemin sees what Kibum had in mind all day—the earrings.

“Oh wow…” Taemin gapes his mouth in awe the moment he bends over to see himself. In front of him dangle two earrings on display, completely studded in jewels and shining beautifully in the light… right away he picks his favorite feature: the crescent moon shape. Taemin feels himself get tense the more he observes the details of the earrings; everything about them were his taste, the simplicity and shine of the chain the moon dangled from, the length of the chain itself… even down to the small stud by the moon shape to resemble a star. Taemin is almost breathless, he feels like he’s in love, “Kibummie I have to have these, I really do!” He breathes out suddenly, stomping his feet with excitement and fluttering his eyes over to his date next to him.

It isn’t even a second before Kibum lets out a loud noise, slapping Taemin on the side of his arm and immediately snorting his laughter in order to stop himself from ruining the atmosphere of the shop. He then reaches over to pet the top of Taemin’s head instead, and chokes on another laugh, “I knew you would like them Taeminnie. You don’t have to ask.” 

Taemin leans his head into Kibum’s touch, batting his eyes just once more before turning his attention back to the earrings; he unknowingly pouts his bottom lip with a growing desperation as Kibum watches him… He, on the other hand, takes a deep breath to calm his racing heart from dying at the cuteness happening in front of him, “Can we please try these on?”

At the simple nod of the employee’s head, Taemin can hardly control his excitement and removes his own earrings without being told so. The moment the employee takes the earrings out of the case and hands one over to Kibum, Taemin grabs onto the same hand and drags it close to his own view instead—he stares at it in even more awe as it dangles in right in front of him…

“Hey that hurts!” Kibum snaps his hand out of Taemin’s grasp, slapping him again with his free hand this time. His heart continues to flutter fast and he wants to laugh all over again, especially at Taemin’s expression for being a bit too excited over jewelry… Then again, he thinks this unexpected reaction from him is what’s making his heart tug more than usual… So, he merely holds in his breath altogether and goes over to put the earring in his hand onto Taemin’s ear, proceeding with the very next one after. 

When both earrings are finally secured onto him, Kibum steps back to take a proper look. He immediately takes another deep breath, trying his best to stop his heart from completely bursting out of his chest when he sees Taemin shine even brighter in front of him than he was a few moments ago. The sparkles now dangling from his ears only highlight the sparkle in his eyes, and Kibum can feel his knees waver in strength the more he stares at the beauty in front of him… “Wow…”

“They look good don’t they!” Taemin exclaims right away, looking to find a mirror and gaze at himself instead. Kibum hears him let out a _‘wow’_ of his own when he finally does check out his reflection. Taemin studies himself in silence after that… ogling at the sparkle of the earrings on him as he checks himself out from multiple angles; he then remember’s Kibum’s words in the car and suddenly feels himself get hot. 

_Beautiful_ … The words repeat in his head over and over, and he sighs loudly when he comes to terms with the fact that Kibum was right. As always… He’s not sure now why he even tried arguing with him earlier, and when he notices Kibum’s reflection staring at him through the mirror, a trickle of blush starts to make its way onto his cheeks. He can almost feel what Kibum is thinking just with the look on his eye and braces himself…

“I told you so!” Taemin is right, “Didn’t I say they would look beautiful on you? And now look, you can’t even stop staring at yourself!” Kibum finishes his snarky remark with a small laugh, taking a step beside Taemin to start fixing his own hair in the mirror. Taemin only pouts, and pushes Kibum a bit in return.

“Shut up, I didn’t say you would be wrong!” Taemin rolls his eyes this time, looking back at his reflection in the mirror because what Kibum said was true… again. He looks so good… “And you didn’t say the earrings themselves would be beautiful hyung…” He looks back at Kibum, then smiling big and almost evil, “You said I would!” 

Kibum rolls his eyes at Taemin this time, shaking his head a bit before cracking a smile himself. “I did, didn’t I?” he places a hand on his chin, looking up in thought, “Though it doesn’t come off as a surprise… It is you, after all… The most beautiful Taeminnie around.” He drops the hands on his chin, and flips his bangs out of his face, “And I am me, Kim Kibum. How could I be wrong about something like this after all?”

Taemin smiles even brighter at Kibum’s words, and starts to blush more at his cheekiness. He can’t stop himself from repeating the word _‘beautiful’_ in his head, and he feels his heart start to plunge deep in feelings as he watches Kibum buy him his new and beloved earrings. Slowly, he starts to feel a bit embarrassed over his outrage at Kibum earlier over the choice of his gift; he feels kind of foolish to have even tried to go against what he had to say in the first place. He is so used to hearing those words come out of Kibum’s mouth anyway, _“I told you so…”_ He should have truly known better and trusted Kibum’s decision from the get go.

In fact, the more he ponders on it the sillier he feels. Kibum always has had such an eye for things, always knows what to say or what to do… And now, Taemin has a beautiful new pair of earrings because of it—he can’t wait to put them on right away and show them off to everyone around him. He can already picture how nice the fansite pictures of him flaunting them off will be. He especially can’t wait to go around and tell them that it was his Kibum hyung, specifically, who bought them for him. That thought alone makes him laugh to himself; everyone will be so surprised to find out it was Kibum who bought the expensive gift and not the other way around… Actually, now that he’s thinking about Taemin, he can't even recall the price of his earrings.

“Hyung…” Taemin speaks up after a while of silently walking back to Kibum’s car; they’ve spent a good number of hours out, and the sun was barely starting to set… “I don’t think I got to see the price of the earrings, how much were they?”

“Don’t worry about it Taeminnie.” replies immediately Kibum, winking back at him before they finally reach his car and hop in. “It’s my gift to you remember, the price doesn’t matter. And no, you don’t need to know.” He winks at him again, this time pointing a finger up to bop him on the nose. Taemin pouts at him in response.

“But—”

“And before you say anything else, I was thinking… instead of going out to dinner like you had wanted, why don’t I just make us dinner again? Like last night, but only better!” Taemin’s train of thought is suddenly thrown off course with Kibum’s random suggestion. He blinks at him at high speed, feeling a bit confused but nods his head in agreement anyway. “Don’t look at me like that, I just figured it would be nicer to be in the comfort of my home…”

“You want to get drunk, don’t you hyung?” They both burst into laughter the second Kibum slyly looked over to Taemin with a side eye; he was caught completely red handed.

“Not just that, but maybe I want to keep spoiling you. Is that so wrong of me? Let’s go to a market quickly and buy some things…” Kibum says then, quietly before starting the car and driving off to a grocery store. Taemin doesn’t say anything further to Kibum’s claims and watches out the window. The sunset looks beautiful within the city, masking the buildings with the prettiest colors of orange and purple; it helps Taemin relax and melt into the seats of Kibum’s car the further they drive—he can hear Kibum singing along to the radio’s tunes and it only makes him sigh in contentment. He thinks the day is turning out a whole lot better than he could have hoped, especially now that Kibum is going to cook for him again… He looks over to him again and sighs just once more. Maybe he’ll let Kibum plan the next date, if he can even win it… Kibum always knows best…

**. . .**

_When Taemin had mentioned he wanted some new clothes to Kibum, he wasn’t really expecting Kibum to take him so seriously. Now, he’s been dragged around, wearing half-assed disguises, as Kibum zooms in and out of the shops on Orange Street. Kibum had woken him early to go out, and they’ve spent a majority of their day walking in and out of plenty of shops scattered over Osaka—occasionally eating snacks or trying new drinks. Overall, Taemin feels like he’s had a great day, especially because it’s been spent with Kibum… but as the hours continue to stretch further, Taemin starts feeling annoyance wash over him with each store he follows him into._

_He can’t remember which number store they’re in now (he stopped counting them a long time ago), and he feels more than ready to go back to the hotel… He sits by the base of a mannequin, pouting at his own feet and waiting for Kibum to finish his browsing of the shop and preparing himself for the next… As if on cue, Kibum’s feet suddenly enter Taemin’s vision and join his own. He looks up to see Kibum look down at him with an irritated face._

_“You know, we came out today because you said you wanted clothes, but you’ve only bought two things… and they were plain white shirts.” Kibum starts, kicking slightly at Taemin’s shoe, “Were you just lying about that? I feel like you’ve been bored all day and it’s annoying.” Taemin gets up, scratching at the back of his head while he listens to his lecture; he suddenly feels bad because he can hear the slight disappointment in Kibum’s voice, and being called annoying in that really tone hurts… He hasn’t been bored at all, he’s just tired and thinks shopping shouldn’t take more than an hour at most…_

_“I haven’t been bored!” Taemin pleads with a scrunch of his eyebrows. Kibum only stares at him with a deadpan expression, waiting for more. Taemin sighs, “Uh… I’m sorry Kibummie…”_

_“That’s it?” Kibum sighs this time, immediately turning around to walk away, “We’ll just go back to the hotel after this Taemin, it’s all right.” Now, Taemin feels really bad… He reaches to grab onto Kibum’s arm before he goes back._

_“I wasn’t exactly sure what to look for okay…” He bites his lips when Kibum slightly turns to his direction again, “I didn’t lie about wanting to buy new clothes hyung, I just feel lost… and I’m only tired from all the Sherlock promo, I promise I’m not bored.” Kibum smiles now, completely different from just a second ago. It’s almost wicked and Taemin feels a chill crawl down his spine._

_“You could’ve just said so Tae!” He exclaims loudly before walking back and tugging Taemin along with him this time. “You know I kind of took this as an opportunity to shop for myself since it’s been a while…” he stops in front of a table and starts picking at the folded clothes on it, “And I guess I should apologize to you for that, because maybe you really didn’t want to come…”_

_“Don’t say that hyung, I never suggested that!” Taemin stomps his feet, starting to feel slight irritation come over him at all of Kibum’s remarks._

_“Well, sorry! I wouldn’t think that if you at least tried a little harder to look! But it’s okay, I get it. You’re not the best at picking out outfits anyway… Perhaps this will be a mini fashion lesson then. What do you think?” By now, Kibum has magically picked out a sweater, a top, and a pair of pants for Taemin to go try on—he pushes the items into his arms without properly showing them to him and then pushes him in the direction of the fitting room. “I only wish you let me know sooner, so I could’ve started the lesson from the get go!”_

_Taemin just allows himself to get pushed, chewing on his lip as he ponders on Kibum’s words. He isn’t necessarily wrong… but Taemin also thinks he’s in no need for a lesson… at least, not urgently._

_In the fitting room, Taemin only feels relieved to be stripping himself of the ridiculous hat and glasses Kibum made him wear for disguise. He stares at the clothing Kibum picked out for him and quickly realizes they aren’t his taste at all: in fact, he feels as though Kibum only shopped for himself again. He tries on the pants nonetheless but immediately rips them back off._

_“Kibum!” Taemin yells from his room, slightly opening the curtain to peek and look for Kibum._

_“Let me see!” Kibum proclaims immediately, jumping into Taemin’s vision from the side and startling him._

_“AH! Hyung—wait!” Before Taemin even gets the chance to tell Kibum to just pick him something different, Kibum bursts his way through his room’s curtain, inviting himself in without warning. When he realizes Taemin is only in his underwear, he squints at him hard._

_“What is this? Why are you naked?”_

_“You didn’t give me the chance to explain…” Taemin goes down to grab the pants he just tossed on the floor and shoves them into Kibum’s arms the same way he did to him earlier, “I don’t want these.”_

_“HUH?” Kibum practically gasps, holding out the pants in front of him to observe, “Well, I guess I could’ve picked better ones…”_

_“No, that’s not it, Kibummie…” Taemin starts to feel a bit awkward when Kibum only looks at him with the tilt of his head. “I just don’t like them, those are totally your style instead.”_

_“So what!” Kibum gasps again, throwing the pants back at him. “They can be your style too, they’re just a normal pair of jeans Taemin, don’t act like this.”_

_“Not even, not with those buttons down the side!” Taemin throws the jeans back. Kibum catches them, glaring at Taemin with a twitch of his eye—he takes a deep breath and sighs._

_“Fine.” He goes to grab the other articles of clothing in the room, ignoring Taemin and moving to walk out. “Get dressed, and we’ll both pick you an outfit… I’ll pick something else.” He leaves right after, leaving Taemin alone and even more awkward than ever. He follows the orders given to him without question, trying to put an image of some outfit he might want—he’s definitely more than irritated at Kibum by now and wants to prove him wrong._

_Once he’s back out onto the sales floor, he immediately starts his mission, trying his best to avoid the areas of the store Kibum is browsing in. He rummages around the clothing slowly piecing together a look he likes, one that he deems his own style. It doesn’t take him very long to finish his outfit, and heads back to the fitting room. Kibum on the other hand, continues to browse, so Taemin takes it upon himself to try his pick on. By the time Kibum is finished and meets Taemin back in the room, he’s fully dressed in his new attire…_

_“Look hyung, here’s what I picked out!” Taemin proclaims a bit excitedly, throwing his arms out to show himself off… He’s feeling certain he’ll get a positive reaction… Instead, he gets a scoff._

_“Taemin that’s like any other outfit I can pluck out of your closet right now!” Kibum lifts a hand to cover the small smile curling on his lips. Taemin immediately throws his arms down, scowling at Kibum in confusion and irritation. Is he just being mean on purpose, Taemin is starting to wonder…_

_“Seriously Kibum?” he looks down to see his outfit once more. “How can you say that?”_

_“Because it’s true,” Kibum says nicely this time, walking up to Taemin, “Fashion lesson #1…” Taemin is just about ready to push Kibum back out of irritation before Kibum reaches down and around his waist—his brain freezes as Kibum turns him around to face the mirror and steps even closer behind him. The closeness suddenly makes Taemin feel nervous, closing his eyes when he feels Kibum’s hand travel away from his waist onto his arm…_

_“First, I am certain this would be the 10th striped shirt you own if I let you go ahead and buy this.” He then moves his touch back down, slowly, and causes Taemin’s eyes to snap back open. Kibum stops his hand at the end of his shirt now, tugging at it to show it off completely. “This is also just another basic t-shirt. There is nothing too exciting about it because of that, and if you’re trying to look for things to spice up your closet well…” he lets go of the shirt, finally taking a step back from Taemin to circle around him instead._

_“The fit of your pants could also be better,” he says, now pointing down to Taemin’s legs. “Find something that will hug the shape of your body better Taeminnie… I promise you, you would look much better.” Taemin scowls again at Kibum’s last words._

_“But that implies I look at least a little bit bad and I don’t like that!” he places both hands on his chest, “And so what if this stuff is just like anything else I have, I like it!” His nerves finally stop bubbling when he sees Kibum nod in agreement with him—there’s a sudden shift of mood in the room…_

_“You’re totally right about that, I don’t doubt you love that shirt” Kibum smiles softly. Taemin takes a deep breath; Kibum’s attitude seems to have become sympathetic, and it’s making him feel vulnerable for some reason... “How about you try on my outfit now, so I can finish this lesson.” Kibum speaks up again, sounding cheekier than he has all day. So, Taemin listens, and quietly changes into his next outfit. What he puts on is completely different from what he was just wearing, and even from the very first outfit he tried on earlier. He observes himself as the mirror, taking another deep breath when Kibum steps behind him again._

_“Now, do you like this outfit now? What do you think about it…” Kibum asks him slowly, and Taemin can feel his hand resting on his lower back. It makes him gulp, and he feels his heart start to elevate, trying to focus on his look in the mirror rather than the touch behind him._

_“It’s not as bad as the last one you picked…” Taemin lets out quietly, “But I don’t think it fits me either… I feel girly. You’re always dressing me in girl’s clothes!”_

_“No I do not! And there’s nothing wrong with being girly…” Kibum whispers close to him this time, snaking his hand back around Taemin’s waist like before—Taemin’s heart skips a beat. “The fit of these pants, they sit on you beautifully, and the waist sits higher…” he squeezes his grip, proceeding to slightly tuck his shirt into his pants, “and paired with this blouse, it gives you a waist to kill for with legs for DAYS. I feel like I could eat you up with my eyes… Or even my mouth…” With that, Taemin suddenly bursts into flames, blushing brightly as he widens his eyes and gasps._

_Kibum lets out a burst of laughter once he catches a glimpse of Taemin’s expression in the mirror. Taemin responds by slapping him, biting his lips as hard as he can to not laugh along too._

_“Don’t do that Kibummie!” he chokes out, “You’ll get me flustered…”_

_Kibum continues laughing, holding onto Taemin’s arm after his slapping ceases, “I just can’t help it Taemin, didn’t you see yourself?” Taemin sucks on his lips, turning back at his reflection to make one more judgement… After hearing Kibum’s words, Taemin notices what he was talking about: he was flaunting a figure he wasn’t so used to, sure, but maybe the curve of his waist wasn’t as girly as he thought. He remembers Kibum saying beautiful…_

_“I guess you’re not so wrong hyung…” Taemin says slowly, still feeling hot and blushing. He turns to face Kibum, “I do look a bit taller, and I never realized my waist could look this…” he gestures down to himself, “good?” He questions if good is even the right word to use, but can’t think of anything better._

_Kibum chuckles, truly pushing Taemin to a limit when he wraps his arms around him, “You have no idea Taeminnie… You may not love this look, but I definitely do.” He flashes a bright smile at him as he tightens his grip around his waist once more; Taemin is surely flustered now, but not just at the fact Kibum is purposely flirting with him, but because he thinks Kibum is amazing. Although it is a bit annoying to Taemin that Kibum always has to be right, or even down plays Taemin in order to be right, Taemin can’t deny that he usually is right after all, ever since debut. He has a way with words that always convinces him with the best reasons—and not just that, he makes him feel GOOD, and incredibly uplifted… he’s not sure Kibum could even be real half the time because of it, and now he’s feeling confused at a revelation of clothing and style he hadn’t thought about (or was even open minded to)._

_Of course, he thinks something like this would have never came to him in the first place if it weren’t for Kibum… and even though he doesn’t understand these things Kibum is into, in moments like these Taemin really thinks he should just try to become like his hyung all at once: intelligent in fields and caring too much about material items… Overall, he’s actually just grateful to have someone like him, someone he can trust even though he’s uncertain..._

_Taemin isn’t able to shake off his flustered feeling for the rest of the day as they continue with their game of individually finding Taemin outfits, having fun out of it by starting to tease with kisses and quick touches. In the end, Taemin decides he wants to save his money after becoming overwhelmed with clothing and looking at their prices. They decide to finally rush back to the hotel once the sun begins to set. Taemin helps Kibum carry plenty of his bags going back, chatting more about fashion rules—Kibum trying his best to convince him why they are so essential… Kibum pretends to forget to be angry at Taemin for practically returning empty handed after all, he did so as soon they started their game. They both pretend to forget about the day, in fact, the moment they turn the lights off in their room, and Kibum spoons Taemin in bed, getting lost in their touch… he squeezes his waist like he did in the fitting room._

**. . .**

Kibum and Taemin return to his apartment with an array of bags—ranging from their shopping adventures to their short grocery trip—and leave them scattered all over the dining table as Kibum immediately goes into cooking. He allows Taemin to help him in the kitchen this time, instructing him on dicing the fresh ingredients. In the midst of everything, Kibum opens their first bottle of wine; they drink and talk amongst themselves over the sizzle of the pans, enjoying the aroma and sweet smell emerging from their cooking magic.

They drink at a fast pace (or at least Kibum does) and once dinner is ready to eat, a happy buzz has greeted both of them—there’s even a slight blush tinting Taemin’s nose. As promised, Kibum serves up an even better dinner than the night before, spoiling Taemin (and himself) with the best selection of seafood and even better pasta. Taemin can’t even begin to explain how happy he feels now, opening their third bottle of wine. He's not sure if he’s feeling drunk from the alcohol or Kibum’s infectious smile… Even Kibum starts to glow pink, and starts getting touchy the moment they finish their plates.

Taemin doesn’t stop Kibum, enjoying the skin ship he’s been missing but tries his best to resist his growing temptation. Especially now, that Kibum leads him to the couch, lightly squeezing his arm as he starts to go into detail for the next project he’s envisioned. He tells Taemin it’ll be much riskier than anything he’s done before, and so Taemin’s imagination only sparks a fire in him. He reaches over and squeezes the hand Kibum holds him with. He laughs along with him, smiles with him—his cheeks start to burn immensely from how much they do.

By now, they are surely tipsy and start getting closer than before—touching thighs, caressing ears. Kibum even plays with Taemin’s hair, practically petting him the more and more he chats. Taemin isn’t quite so sure what Kibum is even saying to him anymore, but the touches he feels are so satisfying he doesn’t care. He especially loves to watch the way Kibum’s lips move when he talks, feeding into his temptation now as he feels an urge in him suddenly appear. He gulps, and doesn’t realize Kibum has stopped talking when he goes to cover his lips.

“Don’t stare at me like that!” he slaps him on the back of the head with the hand that was already there too. From the reaction, Taemin immediately starts to think of ways to defend himself from his action, but is caught off guard when Kibum suddenly uncovers his lips and moves to touch him instead. He points to his bottom lip, pressing down on it and letting out a deep sigh. 

“I’ll just want to stare at you too, why are you so pretty.” Taemin freezes, holding his breath as he watches Kibum’s eyes scan him, he feels like he can see through him… Kibum then slowly moves away from his lip, reaching back up to his ear and gently giving it a tug, “If you had those earrings on right now I’m not so sure I’d be able to stay tame…” Taemin can hear him gulp.

“Kibum…” he reaches up to cup the hand pulling his lobe, making Kibum look him in the eye now. He bites his lip, and Taemin can’t even feel his own heart anymore when he notices Kibum bite on his own lip too, breathing deep and flaring his nostrils.

“Taeminnie…” he swallows. Taemin only brings the hand in his up to his lips then, kissing on it slowly. Kibum pouts at the action, but watches cautiously and wraps his hand in Taemin’s nonetheless—moving to interlace his fingers with the smaller ones he feels… He looks up and can see the fire within Taemin’s eyes; with the heat his body is emitting and all the alcohol in his system, Kibum is about ready to literally burst in flames. His eyes wander back down to his lips, and he gulps again. He feels his heart pounding in his chest now, faster and faster as Taemin leans in closer and closer… Kibum isn’t even breathing when he feels Taemin’s lip slightly brush against his—it only lasts a split second however, as he breaks away from the small hand and pushes him back before they could really kiss.

Taemin looks down to Kibum’s hand, now flat and resting on his heaving chest. He can feel himself sweating, he’s confused, and doesn’t understand why Kibum pushed him away. He thought they were having a great time, and the day was more than successful. Yesterday he told him no kissing before the first date, but now here there are… Looking back at Kibum, he notices some panic in his expression, somehow reminding him today’s date was only a ‘date’ for fun… that he still had to convince him…

“Hyung…” he waits for Kibum to nod at him before continuing, “I thought you said you'd let me kiss you after this first date…” Kibum tilts his head at him.

“I did but…” he goes up and rests a hand on his temple, his thoughts are jumbled and his drunken state is really not helping, especially not with how good Taemin looks in front of him, not with him so close and irresistible… His mind feels like mush, “This was only for fun… right?”

“I didn’t want it to be Kibum…”

“Tae, we already talked about this…” this time, Taemin covers Kibum’s lips with his hand, stopping him from further explaining to take the lead on him instead—make him actually listen. He’s not in the mood to let Kibum shut him down as easily as he did in the morning, nor will he allow himself to get kicked out like yesterday. He’s determined now more than ever to get this, after the one of the most fun days he’s had in a long time with the man he has discovered he loves. He just wants Kibum to see that, he knows he feels it too, there’s just no way he can’t!

“Did you not have a great time today?” He furrows his brows, letting out a small hiccup from his heavy breathing and overall tipsy state, “I know I did, I had the best time actually! I’ve missed you so much, you already knew that. You said you missed me, we went out and wow! I just had so much fun, it felt so refreshing…” Taemin ignores the way Kibum stares back at him with wide eyes, making himself hotter as he continues with his rambling, “…Being around you again, spending most of my day with you, eating your delicious food all over again… Don’t your cheeks hurt right now? Because mine do, that’s how much I’ve enjoyed myself. I always feel this way around you, so why deny it?” He ends by planting his hands hard on his knees, leaning forward and squinting his eyes to ask Kibum once more, “Did you not have a great time today?”

Kibum sits there, buzzing with emotions of all kinds. He’s not sure whether he’s feeling dizzy from being drunk, or dizzy from the butterflies beating around in his stomach… probably a mixture of both. He stares at the sweat drip at the top of Taemin’s lips, gulping again when he remembers what had just happened… Maybe he should just kiss him, he’s right after all. He did have a good time, was there to run away from? He smiles to himself then, starting to feel giddy when he thinks of kissing Taemin; before either of them know it, Kibum enters a laughing fit.

“You know Taemin, you’re right! You really are!” he hiccups, causing him to choke a bit on his laughter. He coughs once to clear his throat and calm himself, closing his eyes to hum to himself; Taemin watches on, leaning back into the couch realizing that maybe Kibum is more drunk than he seems. 

“Um…” says Taemin, starting to feel a bit awkward watching Kibum, who is still smiling to himself through everything…

“Kissing you would be nice… I think I would like that” Kibum suddenly speaks, opening his eyes and staring at Taemin right in his… “But I don’t know,” he chuckles with a shy smile, “hehe, don’t you think it’s still too soon? Is this right?” By now, Kibum takes a stand from his spot on the couch, holding onto Taemin’s hand to make him follow him. He gives it a squeeze, pulling him in then, face to face; Taemin tries to hold his breath as he feels Kibum’s own breathing close on his face…

“Too soon, Hyung?” Taemin tries his best to converse with Kibum, trying to gain something out of this now messy situation. Kibum nods.

“I want to have fun, like today… Again, and again. If I kiss you well…” he pauses, turning away from Taemin suddenly, staring at the large clock on the wall. “When did it get so late!”

“Kibum wait, what were you saying?” Taemin tugs at Kibum’s hold on him, trying his best to keep his attention on whatever he is getting at… To Taemin, it sounded like Kibum really wanted to go out again, or at least that’s what he’s hoping. He feels so close, he has Kibum right here, his hand in his—his face was RIGHT there…

“I don’t know Tae,” Kibum hiccups again, breaking his hold on Taemin’s hand and bringing it up, resting his head on it with a tilt. “I’m a very busy boy tomorrow I think it’s time you go.” He puckers his lips out when he says it, bearing an expression that seemed like he was sleepy and it only annoys Taemin. He can feel all his efforts slip away, he thinks of everything that’s happened thus far and pouts… He goes ahead and decides to jump the gun, taking the chance that he sees… Is there really any going back now?

“Well, I guess we can continue this with another date then… Hyung, I want that kiss…” he reaches out to retrieve the same hand Kibum was using, gaining full attention. For some reason, the room suddenly feels frozen—time holds still as Taemin watches Kibum’s eyes scan over him a second time, noticing a smug look beginning to bloom on his expression. He smiles then, by tucking in his lips, squeezing Taemin’s hand and bringing it up to hold with his other hand as well. 

Kibum’s mind runs in circles, pondering on Taemin’s question and running frantically with both butterflies and panic… It’s as though the punk has read his thoughts just now, and it’s frustrating. Kibum is starting to feel like there’s going to be no escape from this little devil known as his maknae Taeminnie… He continues to observe him, all why repeating his question in his head… He wants dates, he wants kisses… Kibum swallows hard then, focusing on Taemin’s lips now; they’re relaxed—in fact, Taemin is completely relaxed… his sweating has stopped, and he stares back at Kibum, intense fire burning brightly in his eye. Kibum feels his heart tug, and he almost wants to let himself give him that kiss… Instead, he gives one last squeeze to the small hand in his hands, smiling sickeningly sweet.

“Yea, okay… Why the hell not?” he sighs out, breathing in slowly to keep his heart steady and calm as he sees Taemin’s eyes burst into even more flames: fireworks pop off in every direction. He jumps up like an excited child, laughing carelessly and Kibum feels his nausea creep back—he truly can’t tell what the reason is for anymore, be it his nerves or the alcohol, but what he does know is the warmth on his cheeks is starting to burn… He smiles along with Taemin, getting drunk off this happy feeling that’s overcome him anyway, only getting more intoxicated within the moment. 

Both of them are extremely happy, and though Taemin never gets his kiss, he doesn’t complain at all when Kibum immediately goes back into kicking him out when he remembers the time. Instead, he gleefully runs out of Kibum’s apartment as he chases him out with a pillow, laughing loudly about how he’s ruining his life. Taemin only went home sighing happily at the interaction, and even more so at the fact the entire day was perfect. He’s overjoyed that he’ll have the chance to do it again, and even more so that Kibum never denied them being dates now… He really thinks Kibum is warming up to him… he can almost taste his lips again, and he can’t wait. He almost doesn’t sleep at all that night, as his head runs wild with everything about his day: from his new earrings, to the best dinner he’s had in months, and especially to Kibum… and how much his heart sings for him.

* * *

**_Six._ **

Kibum has one of the worst days; he endures an entire day of misery all thanks to a lovely hangover that decides to greet him in the morning. Granted, he wasn’t very surprised over the fact he was so incredibly hungover, since he threw up three times after he was able to kick Taemin out of his apartment… Sleep wasn’t able to greet him either because of his irresponsibility, and so Kibum is more than happy to be going home after finishing his schedules at the end of the day.

He watches out the window as his manager drives him home… He takes his time to think of the night prior now that he has the chance to relax, and even more so since his headache is finally gone. He thinks hard and focused, feeling overwhelmed with an array of emotions from all that happened. If anything, Kibum is annoyed at himself for getting so drunk in the first place, it was never his intention to drink so much… He was only looking for a happy buzz, and got drunk enough to agree to another date with Taemin instead…

Kibum looks down at his phone, suddenly remembering the ultimate result of his drinking last night… Taemin. The brat had been sending him texts all day, though they all went ignored… Kibum reads them now, cursing at himself when he sees they all have to do with yesterday, and hopes of making more plans like they had agreed on… He wants to almost scream now, what did he get himself into? He has to find a nice way to let Taemin down now—a second date wasn’t something he was really looking for…

Though, Kibum can’t deny he did have a great time like Taemin had pointed out so fiercely. He had such a fun time actually, it honestly felt a bit too good to be around him like that again… Reminiscing on it now, he can feel his heart grow warm again… There wasn’t one thing about the day that went wrong, and even through the annoying bits Kibum thinks it was one of the better days he’s had in a long time—having more days like that would be more than amazing. That is, however, when he realizes it was all with Taemin… His heart suddenly freezes, and images of Taemin smiling and laughing flood his mind; he wants to scream because of it.

In haste, he starts typing a message in reply to the plenty of messages Taemin has sent—but he’s hesitant. He needs to be sure he doesn’t hurt Taemin’s feelings by letting him down so suddenly, but he knows there’s no way; especially when he looks back to all the strange behavior from the entire week as a whole. Taemin is really stuck on him like glue right now, practically obsessed with him and his touch, and that’s exactly why Kibum needs to do this… no matter how much his mind is at war with it.

He sighs, staring down at the message he’s come up with… For some reason he feels a painful tug in his heart, and he can feel a headache start to form once more… A bright image of Taemin’s gummy smile fills his memory, and he sighs even louder than before. He presses send and looks away, immediately shutting off his phone and staring back out the window. He tries his best to ignore the stinging feeling that’s overwhelming him now, and he tries even harder to stop thinking about Taemin… (he fails, extremely hard, when he opens an old Taemin playlist he has saved, and listens to it to ease his building anxiety to finally sleep).

**. . .**

_SHINee work diligently and extremely focused as they prepare for one of the biggest milestones of their lives: performing at Tokyo Dome. They’ve been at the venue for days on end now, testing stage design, lighting, and sound… So much was being put into this, everyone was trying their best to make sure this concert is as iconic as it should be. The members themselves were doing everything they could to deliver._

_Today was a bit different as a rehearsal—it was the first time the members were doing wardrobe fittings and changes. They were all in awe with their outfits, in love with the extravagance of them all and praising Kibum for his handwork with the design team. He wanted the costumes for this to be extra special, and they surely were… They especially were in love with the first outfit of the concert: a royal looking uniform, styled differently depending on the member, garnished with the most beautiful details and embroidery… outfits surely fit for the princes of k-pop._

_It was lunch time, and most of the staff scattered to the break room where trays of food await their empty stomachs… Kibum, who decided to skip out on lunch, stays in the dressing room, further working on the wardrobes. He was especially focusing on his outfit for his solo stage; being that each member was going to perform a song alone, he was certain to pick something shocking and sexy… something he knows no one is ready for, even the members looked at him with wide eyes when he presented them his look. “It’s not too risky?” “You’re really pushing it now.” He smiles to himself hearing those words play in his head now, he’s certain he’ll get the reactions he’s looking for. His skin crawls just thinking about it._

_He tries on his outfit, adjusting the straps to sit on his body just right—not too tight but not loose either… He stares at himself in the mirror with pride. He feels good, he feels sexy… his recent diet has really proven to work well, his slim figure and milky skin only look ravishing under the black leather on him…_

_“They are going to eat me up!” he exclaims loudly, continuing to check himself out and adore himself until he notices something moving in the corner of his eye. Turning around, he discovers Taemin, who’s watching him from a chair inside the room—he stares back at him with nervous eyes, as if he wasn’t expecting to be caught so soon…_

_“Hyung your outfit…” Taemin gulps when he scans Kibum’s figure. Kibum only laughs at the gesture, strutting over to Taemin in confidence. Taemin stands immediately, gulping once more as he watches Kibum._

_“What, don’t you like it?” he gives a twirl, placing both hands on his hips. He looks around the room but doesn’t see anyone else, “Where is everyone? Did you come back alone?”_

_“I got full so I came back to see what you were doing… I didn’t think you were still changing.” Kibum could keep laughing at the way Taemin looks at him with wide eyes; he can tell he’s observing the harness on his body, studying it as if he’s trying to solve it like a math problem. Kibum starts to wave a hand in front of him, bringing his attention back up to his eyes rather than his waist._

_“Well, I guess you do like it.” He winks at Taemin with a smile. Taemin doesn’t respond immediately, and Kibum can see his face slowly get pink as he stands there awkwardly._

_“I do hyung, I’ve just never seen anything like this in person, and you never wanted to show me your stuff…” he swallows again, “it’s interesting to finally see it on you…” he reaches up and places a hand on Kibum’s chest, touching the leather on him. He traces it lightly with his fingers, following where it goes, down Kibum’s torso, decorating his body in a way he’s never seen it before._

_He’s heard of these things before, started to see some things recently too all thanks to Kibum himself—harnesses, sex toys, anything to do with kinky sex or what’s related… He’s regretting all the times he’s hung out with Kibum to watch porn now, because everything he’s ever heard or seen him speak about is now flooding his mind, and making his crotch hot… It’s hard to look Kibum in the eyes and not feel attraction; he wasn’t wrong when he said he looks good… he looks too good._

_“You know Taeminnie,” Kibum speaks up, breaking Taemin away from his thoughts. He brings a hand up, taking a hold on Taemin’s bare arm. He slowly rubs up, feeling the smooth skin underneath his touch until his fingers reach the edge of his tank top. Taemin can hear him hum… “Now that you’re a big boy and have your own sexy solos, seeing you in something like this would be really nice…” he pauses and licks his lips, wrapping his hand around Taemin’s bicep, “You’re already taking your top off, already showing off your beautiful skin… your slender body, all your soft curves. Do you know how good you would look in this Taemin?”_

_By now Kibum’s hand has let go it’s grip, feeling up on his arm yet again. He feels downward this time, taking a hold on Taemin’s hand, playing with his fingers… He lifts his other hand too, placing it flat on Taemin’s chest; he can feel how his chest is heaving, breathing in deep and steady. Kibum can tell Taemin is nervous by that and from the look in his eye—he has noticed him gulp and bite his lip in some anticipation too… Kibum wants to drink it all in, he almost can’t take it._

_Kibum can feel his heart begin to race, and can no longer ignore the heat coming from his groin… He bites at his lip—the images of Taemin in his harness were almost too good, he has to admit… He wishes he can see it now, because he just knows it would be a sight to see: silky skin, garnished in leather… he can’t help but to imagine it would resemble art. His mind plunges deep into his fantasies, and more pictures flood his imagination—Taemin, wrapped in rope, completely submissive to his touch… Or Taemin, in handcuffs, pleading on his knees… They all drive him wild, and he can’t help his hand wander up from Taemin’s chest, slowly wrapping his fingers around the slender throat in his palm…_

_“Kibum…” Taemin breathes out, panting heavier now and burning pink… He’s been standing there, allowing Kibum to devour him with his eyes and despite his struggle in trying to keep his boner down, he’s enjoying the way he’s being looked at… He’s taken a hold on the hand that was playing with his fingers, squeezing tight from nervousness—he only stares at Kibum with lidded eyes, his head being held up from the grasp he’s found himself trapped in. When their silence ensues, he reaches up with his other hand to free himself… He holds onto both of Kibum’s hands now, taking his chance to observe this time._

_Taemin scans the harness on him once more—he’s certain Kibum was only picturing him in these outfits of his, or anything kinky he’s ever mentioned… He doesn’t even have to hear it to know, he’s only certain from the look in Kibum’s eyes. Taemin gulps each time he meets them, he can’t help it; the look of being admired. He can only wonder what exactly it is Kibum could have in mind however, because the wrap around his throat is definitely something he’s never felt… the sensation of long fingers wrapping around him, squeezing slightly and altering his breath… He breathes out then, curious as his thoughts begin to picture how his hands would look on Kibum’s throat too… What he could do with that riding crop sitting on the vanity too… If the things Kibum talks about are really as fun as he makes them sound…_

_Suddenly, a switch flips in his brain. He let’s go of his hold on Kibum’s hands, feeling up on his bare arms instead, taking in the feeling of slim muscles and cold skin—it sends a chill down his spine. He slowly, with both hands, takes a hold on Kibum’s thick neck… neither of them are hiding the lust on their faces anymore, Kibum practically smiling at the sudden change of pace and mood and even more than satisfied with the hands around his throat… He holds his breath with anticipation, watching Taemin blink and lick his lips endlessly in front of him. He loves the smile on his face..._

_“I know you say I’d look good in this, and I’m sure that’s exactly what you were just imagining… You say I look good in anything…” He gulps, releasing his grip from Kibum’s throat, trailing down slowly onto his chest, “but right now hyung…” He looks down at the leather again, feels it once more under his touch… His entire being is running wild with emotion—he’s not even sure what’s come over him. He wants to ravish Kibum, wants to overpower him… He wants to see what fun this harness could bring… Looking back up at his face, Taemin gets entranced by his lips, triggering more thoughts of intimacy._

_He’s easily hypnotized and without thinking, dives in and kisses Kibum; he kisses him hard, bringing one hand up and behind his head to keep him in place. Kibum only reacts by kissing back, humming deep in satisfaction. “You’re the one who looks so good…,” Taemin breathes out in between kisses—along with more compliments and sweet nothings, making Kibum melt completely… He also bites at Kibum’s lip, tugging it slightly each time before diving back in to deepen their kiss even more. He kisses him like he has never before…_

_They lose themselves in their kissing, getting more heated and hard as they go… for some reason, neither of them could stop, starting to feel up each other more—and they had no intention to stop until Taemin finally opened his eyes. He gasps suddenly, jumping away from Kibum, pushing him back harshly and without warning. Kibum is startled by the action, only to see an even more startled Taemin in front of him. He’s staring past him with scared eyes and flared nostrils—his expression is totally panicked. Without saying a word, he begins to shake his head, and Kibum notices him quickly cover his groin before running straight past him… When he turns over his shoulder to call out for him to come back, he instantly freezes._

_Kibum’s throat goes dry, and he tries his best to keep calm when Jinki takes a step closer into the room. Taemin runs out, accidentally bumping his shoulder trying to squeeze past him through the door frame… He looks at Kibum with an evil stare in his eye, making Kibum’s nerves easily go from excited to scared. He takes a deep breath and finds himself a seat to sit in before Jinki has the chance to start lecturing him; he tries his best to focus on apologies too, but it’s hard when the blood from his brain has gathered at his penis instead… He mentally curses himself, he should’ve been more responsible._

_“I’m going to go ahead and just start by reminding you that I truly do not care who you decide to get close and intimate with, be it with each other as a group or anyone else we know…” Jinki’s voice is low but stern. Kibum isn’t even looking at him, opting to change out of his harness into decent clothing but he can hear the voice behind him get louder until it’s right behind him. He sighs when he turns around, finally facing his leader who only stares back at him with an extremely disappointed face._

_“Just be sure to not get caught, take every precaution you can… and be safe. I know this already old man, you don’t have to remind me. I’m sorry for being reckless just now, I wasn’t being responsible, it’s on me… Not Taemin.” Kibum goes ahead and finishes Jinki’s lecture for him, rolling his eyes quickly before turning back and walking to put away his wardrobe. Jinki follows him however, and his expression hasn’t changed at all… it only makes Kibum feel more scared._

_“I’m glad to know you remember my warning, and I appreciate your apology…” he starts again, touching Kibum on the shoulder this time, “But I’m going to be honest with you Kibum-ah… I think you should really stray away from Taemin now.” Kibum tucks in his lips when he hears Jinki’s words, titling his head at him in confusion. Jinki has always been a bit more cautious about his actions with Taemin, but he has never told him anything like this… It doesn’t make sense, and it feels too random to Kibum._

_“Taemin?” Kibum asks in a high tone, “Jinki, look he’s not a baby. He knows what he’s doing, this isn’t anything serious, I’ve told you plenty of times before.”_

_“Enough is enough,” Jinki furrows his brows, letting out a giant sigh of frustration in return. He also takes a step closer to Kibum, puffing out his chest to ensure that he’s being serious. “Our group is reaching a new level of amazing, think about that. Taemin even went solo last year, Jonghyun did too just the other month... Don’t you think he has new things to focus on? There is so much in store, not just for us but for him… Jonghyun is no longer in the palm of your hand, but Taemin? He needs to focus…” Jinki pauses, looking away awkwardly while scratching the back of his head. Kibum starts to feel bleak as he hears Jinki lecture him on… He’s bringing up some points Kibum usually likes to forget for the sake of his fun, and now that he’s reminded of them he can’t help but realize that Jinki is right… that maybe, that’s why he’s so used to forgetting about them too. In a deep sigh, Jinki continues._

_“I don’t know how to say this either, especially since I’m not so sure if you’ve noticed but… The way he looks at you, Kibum-ah… If you break his heart I don’t think I could forgive you…” Now, Kibum really feels his body go dead cold. Did he just hear that correctly? Him breaking Taemin’s heart? “I’m not going to make you stay away from him, but please… Just be wary, not just about getting caught, but about our maknae. We should be protecting him, help him… Don’t do anything that will sacrifice his well being, okay? For the group too.” Jinki ends his lecture quickly, walking away before Kibum could even have a real chance to reflect on his words._

_It’s like time stops as his mind goes into a frenzy right after; he thinks over what he just heard. His body still feels frozen cold, and he can’t stop himself from hyperventilating the more and more he hears Jinki’s words repeat in his head. He’s not so sure what Jinki could have meant to him just now, but he doesn’t like the way it’s making him feel. He could never imagine breaking Taemin’s heart, he only wants to do what Jinki suggests: protect and help… So why? Why would Jinki say such a thing? He starts to reflect on his times with Taemin, thinking of their bond and reflecting deeper, overwhelming himself with an array of emotions… He figures then that Jinki is suggesting to him that Taemin is in love, or will fall in love…_

_He almost wants to laugh out loud—sure, maybe he and Taemin are a bit sweet, so sickeningly sweet… but that’s just how they’ve always been. From the start, he’s always been so gravitated to Taemin, though he’s not so sure why… He starts to chuckle to himself the more he thinks about it actually, how could Taemin fall in love with his “umma” after all… Kibum feels an annoying sting in his heart, isn’t that their reputation as SHINee members after all? Baby Taeminnie and his Mother Key… He rolls his eyes just thinking about it._

_Suddenly, Kibum looks at a mirror and stares at his reflection in it—he studies himself seriously, finally calming his nerves when he remembers the entirety of the picture… Despite being distressed at Jinki’s new warning, Kibum thinks what he told him is right anyway… That he shouldn’t be distracting Taemin anyway. Jinki says to help and protect him, and he is right when he says those things—Kibum can’t even try to deny it. He needs to be there for Taemin, and help him grow… and especially in times like now. It’s important to watch out for each other._

_He looks around his surroundings then, looks at all the wardrobes, the mirrors, the lights… They’re in Tokyo Dome, and they’re there to perform—an achievement of a lifetime. He thinks of all the hard work and all the effort that’s been put into this… Everything that’s been put into their lifetime as idols... He remembers this is their seventh year of working like this, remembers Taeminnie’s solo and the other members’ activities too… He remembers that this is what they will probably be doing for the rest of their lives… He swallows hard when he realizes the truth, and feels foolish for not realizing it before… He needs to keep a safe distance, be careful that certain feelings don’t develop… His intimacy with Taemin may be great, the both of them might even enjoy their antics more than they probably should, but in the end, SHINee is first—their careers as idols will always be first…_

_He thinks of when he dated Jonghyun, remembers of their fleeting love and relationship and how it only came crumbling down due to the same thing… They are idols, they’re in the same group, it just couldn’t work out in the end… Especially because they couldn’t stop each other from ever seeing other people, their undying lust as young adults—it was just all part of the lifestyle… Kibum sighs, and his mind begins to wander back to Taemin. His gummy smile and choking laugh infect his brain, the small touch of his fingers and the plush feeling of his lips… He’s not sure why he feels this way, but despite the melancholy, Kibum is certain he knows what to do… It’s his responsibility to keep things how they are, he can’t let things slip further. He can’t repeat what he already did once..._

_Slowly, the low sound of voices and walking start to appear from outside; lunch must be over and the staff and others are finally returning… It’s time to go back to work, and Kibum sighs to himself loudly. He braces himself for the remainder of the rehearsal, ready’s his mind to give it his all, and tries his best to avert his eyes each time Taemin is in his view…_

_The tour ends successfully, SHINee shine brighter than they ever have in the entirety of their career… completely iconic! All five of them could agree it was some of the best moments of their lives, no happiness could ever come close, and the high from it all was everlasting… So, Kibum isn’t too sure why he feels so sad and defeated the day they return home to Korea and he lies in bed, cold and completely alone in his apartment…_

**. . .**

_taeminnie~_

_im sorry i didn’t reply until now_

_i was busy and hungover lol_

_…_

_that being said, i just wanted to let you know that whatever it is i agreed on last night was pure drunken banter… seeing how bad my hangover was, u should know that probably means i was much too drunk… i didnt mean to agree on another date…_

_…_

_im sorry but thank you for an amazing time yesterday… let’s reach out to the members soon for our comeback!_

_…_

_also, please send me selcas when u wear ur new earrings, i would like to save them for myself hehe. thanks xoxo_

Taemin lies in bed, staring at his ceiling which is solely being illuminated by the light on his phone. He’s left it lying on the pillow next to him, set to stay on as he’s been waiting for a response from Kibum all night… Though, he’s more than certain he’s never going to get it. He’s been certain now, for more than 5 hours…

He doesn’t even shut his phone off when finally he throws his covers over him, trapping himself in warmth and darkness as he continues to reminisce on Kibum’s last message to him. He sighs out in frustration, trying his best to keep his heart from crumbling but also from spam calling Kibum all over again… He feels desperate again, but now he feels desperate, sad, and angry, and it feels a lot worse than it ever did before.

Little by little, Taemin remembers the movie he watched that snowballed into this mess… He sighs when he remembers why it caused him so much distress, hates himself for even watching it in the first place. Now, he’ll be stuck with the concept of other dimensions and possibilities existing all while having to accept the dissatisfaction of his own reality forever… It’s really unfair he thinks, and he can’t help but to want to grow angrier at Kibum, or even blame him completely for everything that’s happened, including letting him fall in love… 

Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, a fire ignites deep in him. He starts to think to himself that maybe he won’t accept this reality after all—realizes that all this week, he’s been pushing much too hard to just quit now… He has flashbacks of Kibum from the day before, remembering all his bright smiles and happy laughs, thinks of how good they both felt… He takes a deep breath then, and decides to continue to take matters into his own hands, just like he has all week long.

* * *

**_Seven._ **

The chill of the night has settled in the city of Seoul—the moon is shaped beautifully in a crescent, hardly lighting up the sky, and allowing the city to shine for itself. Kibum has just finished another day of hard work, and aside from being busy, the day has felt rather mournful for some reason. He couldn’t feel happier arriving home, more than ready to wash up in a hot bath and go to bed. He opens his door and instantly freezes.

A trail of roses is scattered on the stairway. Kibum observes the situation in front of him, and wonders if he should just call the police… He opts out of the decision however, when he realizes his dogs have yet to bark, or run to greet him. So, he slowly climbs up, making his way to the main area of his apartment, following the roses and holding his breath in anticipation (and fear). It’s dead silent, anxiety ringing through the walls, and the closer Kibum gets the more he smells the scent of candles—sweet aromas mixing with the scent of the roses all over. When he finally reaches the top of the stairs, he hesitates on opening the door… with a deep breath, he takes a hold of the handle, and pushes it open as fast as he can. 

He’s welcomed to even more roses, and surely there are candles lit all over in the darkness of his apartment. It doesn’t take him long to realize a sleeping figure on his couch; he doesn’t even bother walking up to it though, turning to a switch and flipping the lights open. Instantly the full appearance of his intruder is revealed, and at the same time Taemin jumps from the sudden light, a bundle of roses in his hands and Comme Des and Garçons sleeping by his side… he must have been sleeping too, from the drowsy expression on his face. He notices Kibum right after, opening his eyes wide and taking a stand. Kibum can feel his anxiety fly through the roof, and his heart begins to pound loudly in his chest when he realizes what’s going on—he can feel his world start to crumble.

“Hyung…” Taemin says in a low and hushed tone, a bit scared from the expression Kibum is beaming at him with. Without a proper response, they only stare at each other in silence—Kibum’s chest heaving and his whole face burning red. Taemin feels lost, but he’s not ready to lose now. He stands tall with his feet planted hard on the floor, holding his breath as he waits for Kibum to finally tell him something… Instead, he lets out a loud yell, startling him and finally waking the dogs into a barking frenzy, running to his side and jumping all over Kibum. He then rushes over to Taemin, unexpectedly as Taemin falls back onto the couch from the momentum. Kibum snatches the bundle of roses from his arms, and stares at them with angry eyes…

“Taemin what the hell is all this!” his voice cracks in a panic, and he throws the roses to the floor. “How did you get in my apartment!” Taemin gasps, pushing Kibum out of his way to retrieve his flowers. Their hearts pound in both their heads now; Kibum slips away from his sanity as Taemin’s anxiety starts yelling at him to run out. He doesn’t run away though, and turns to Kibum with scrunched eyebrows and a determined aura. He doesn’t want to waste his time, he’s going to win this, no matter how scary Kibum looks at him now.

“I watched you put in the code the night we came back for dinner, I’m sorry…” he gulps, watching how Kibum chews his lips to listen, “You already know what this is Kibum…” he gulps again, trying his best to not choke on his anxiety, “Go on another date with me please, I’ll put so much effort to make you happy again. Please Kibum, accept me again. I did all of this for you, don’t you like it?”

Taemin is only met with mad laughter, feeling his heart sink when he sees Kibum throw his arms up into the air, slapping himself right on the forehead with both hands. Kibum is feeling more than defeated, he’s definitely trapped into a corner, and it’s all Taemin’s fault. He truly can’t believe it… This was NEVER supposed to happen… Suddenly, the room begins to feel flimsy, and his breathing gets more heavy, causing him to lose the feeling of his feet… He doesn’t say a word more to Taemin, storming out of the room instead, running quickly up his stairs before the tears building in his eyes start falling. Taemin only follows.

“Kibum, wait!” Taemin calls out for him as he runs into his closet. He shuts the door and runs into a corner, finally falling to his knees. His anxiety is crawling all over his skin, making him shiver as his hyperventilating continues. He can no longer hold back his tears, watching them fall all over his hands while he stays bent over on the floor. He hears the door open, and curses himself for not locking it…

“Hyung, are you okay?” Taemin’s voice peaks in low.

“Go away Taemin, didn’t you take the hint when I ignored you yesterday? Wasn’t my text message enough? I didn’t even return your ten phone calls! Leave me alone!” he yells, moving to sit and hold onto his knees as he cries into them.

“You said you were busy…”

“I was lying Taemin,” Kibum snaps again, still crying into his knees. He doesn’t want to look at Taemin, let alone have Taemin see his tears fall. “I was ignoring you! Trying to push you away, get the hint please!” he sobs out in a choke this time, trying his best to calm down. By now, his mind has become overwhelmed with thoughts and memories, along with the pressure of keeping his responsibility—he wants to scream again, he wishes this week never happened. He wish he never filmed that stupid movie.

The room goes quiet for a while after that, minutes of silence ensue as Kibum sits and cries to himself like a lost child. He figures Taemin has left, letting himself cry more and more as the feeling of regret begins to wash over him too… As if on cue, he feels a small hand touch his shoulder. When he looks up, he sees Taemin standing right there in front of him, melancholy and pain in his eyes. He moves to sit in front of him, reaching the hand on his shoulder to wipe the tears from his face instead; he pouts at him, and it makes Kibum’s heart tug.

“Why are you being like this Kibum…” Taemin starts, his eyes starting to look glassy, “You’re being so mean…” He bites his lip then, as his eyes start to collect more tears and now Kibum can feel his heart start to shatter… Is Taemin really about to cry?

“No, no… Don’t cry…” He releases the grip around his knees to cup Taemin’s face, but Taemin slaps his hands away. Kibum’s heart only shatters more.

“No Kibum, don’t try to act all nice now!” Taemin chokes out trying his best not to cry; he looks down to the floor, fumbling his hands on the carpet out of nervousness. “I’m so used to this, and I’m so tired of it. The push and pull, the constant pushing and pulling…” he sniffles, no longer able to hold his giant tears as they stream down his cheeks. His heart beats like a hummingbird in his chest, and it feels like he’s completely alone in the room. He thinks of everything that’s happened this week and sighs. The room has gone completely cold, and he hates it, he hates all of this.

“You always treat me like your favorite, and when we do get close and intimate I feel stars pop off in my chest, your kisses feel amazing, I want nothing but your touch on me every time. No person ever touches me like you, in fact… whenever I sleep with someone new I just compare them to you…” Taemin speaks quickly, blinking out more and more tears as he chokes on his words, trying his hardest to pour his heart out in one go. He has no choice now, this is his last chance. “It just feels so unfair… because you pull me in so close, like so close I get so addicted to everything about you—your touch, your laughter, all the happiness… but then, you just push me away in the end, ignore me and I have to pretend like everything I feel when I’m around you isn’t real…”

“We can’t just start dating, Tae. Shut up now! Stop this nonsense!”

“No, hyung! I won’t! And it’s not nonsense, you dated Jonghyun, why can’t you date me? You’re single, and it just makes no sense to me Kibum, are you just toying with me!” Taemin slams his fists on the carpet below him.

“It is nonsense, don’t you even remember why Jjong and I didn’t work?” Kibum snaps back, “There’s just no way Taemin, please be realistic… We are idols, you’re my member…”

“Get out of here with that nonsense yourself, Kibum… WHO CARES!” Taemin yells hard, slamming his fists one more time. He sucks in his breath, exhaling loudly as he cries. He feels so tense and vulnerable now…

“Taemin please stop crying…” Kibum speaks up again, as calmly as he can. Taemin finally looks at him, tears still rolling, and Kibum can feel his heart completely shatter then—when he sees the heartbreak on the pretty face crying in front of him… “Taeminnie…” he breathes out, tears filling his eyes once more, unable to take the pain of seeing Taemin cry because of him. He tries one more time to hold Taemin’s face, and Taemin let’s him; he cups his round face gently, using one hand to wipe the wetness all over.

“Kibum hyung…” Taemin reaches to grab the hand wiping his face prompting Kibum to look him right in the eye; the look in his expression is totally different from just moments ago in the living room. Taemin sees sadness and heartache, he sees that Kibum is feeling just as lost, distressed, and horrible as he is—and he can’t take it anymore… “I’m in love with you.”

“……What…” Kibum asks, slowly opening his eyes wide. He tries to let go of Taemin’s hand but fails when Taemin squeezes it hard within his grip.

“I’m in love with you Kibum, I’m not sure how long I have been but I am.” he squeezes Kibum’s hand one more time, starting to cry all over again. Closing his eyes, he brings the hand in his close to his face and kisses it, again and again, “Being around always feels so nice, I don’t think I know anyone else who makes my heart float as much as you do… I swear sometimes it feels like I’m in heaven…” He looks Kibum in the eyes, fire burning bright, “And I know you must feel the same too, stop running from this Kibummie, please…”

Kibum stares at him, dumbfounded and now crying, but for some reason his heart no longer feels as bad as it did… Somehow, he can feel all the shattered bits slowly piece together, and it’s all because of Taemin. It irritates him, but then he reminisces on Taemin’s words… He feels like he’s in heaven when he’s with him, huh? That he must feel the same too… Kibum isn’t sure if he wants to scream again or just laugh at the fact Taemin is wrong. He doesn’t feel like he’s in heaven… he feels like he’s above that.

“Taeminnie…” he pulls their hands back and away from the kisses of Taemin’s soft lips. “Is this all because of the movie?” Kibum gulps hard when he asks his question, already knowing the answer—he knows this behavior, the date, the flowers, the constant bugging… it was all because of the movie. He sees Taemin nod his head at him, turning his head into the hand that was still cupping his cheek, kissing the inside of the palm… Now, Kibum is really certain the concept of the film only planted the seed of dating each other into Taemin’s mind, and the fact he had been missing their intimacy only made it bloom at the fast rate it did… For some reason, Kibum feels calm, all his anxiety and frustration washed away by his tears—maybe even by Taemin’s too…

“Kibum…” Taemin speaks, finally taking a hold of Kibum’s hand on him, but doesn’t continue to talk… Instead he looks back down, sniffling as he tries to contain his tears. 

Kibum observes him, pets the soft hands in his. He thinks of the past few days, and he honestly can say at this point he was truly expecting this… He even thinks now, that perhaps it's a bit overdue… He looks fondly at Taemin as they both cry, his heart completely mended and warm… The whole room was warm, and when Taemin looked him back in the eye everything seemed to fall into place: Kibum doesn’t care. He can hear Jinki’s voice creep up in the back of his mind, hear thoughts of other concerns and possibilities. He feels scared but quickly shuts it out, opting to use everything in him to beam his own love to the man in front of him instead… Taemin’s fire, his beauty, his warm and happy existence is perfect to Kibum, he wants to do nothing but hold onto it everyday—he’s done with letting it go. There’s no more running away… Very slowly, a smile starts to curl on his lip as he gets overwhelmed with the warmth all over him, he feels like he’s over the moon.

In the blink of an eye, he leans forward, not giving a damn, nor giving a warning, as he kisses Taemin on the lips as if he never has before… Giggling to himself as butterflies begin to flutter crazy in his stomach, spilling out of him in the form of more and more kisses, melting into the old plush feeling he never gets tired of... He can feel Taemin smile into the kisses too, hear him sort of laugh to himself in chuckles as he brings his small hands up to cup Kibum’s sweaty and tear covered face. They’re both a wet mess, in more ways than one the deeper their kiss goes on... They tumble onto the floor, taking time to kiss each other, remember the feeling of the other’s lips… the tenderness, all the love and compassion—they both have missed it so much.

When the kiss calms down, and they only peck each other softly in bliss, Kibum rests his forehead on Taemin’s and takes a deep breath. Taemin breathes in at the same time, taking in the same air as Kibum, letting it fill his lungs with love and admiration… They stay there peacefully, Kibum rubbing tenderly on Taemin’s shoulders, soothing him from his tense muscles—all the crying made him freeze up quite literally… He almost falls into slumber until Kibum speaks up, voice extremely hoarse and deep, sounding like music to his ears…

“Taeminnie,” he moves his hand away from his shoulder, cupping the round face in front of him once more, “I could’ve told you such a long time ago… I love you too, I have always loved you…” He smiles to himself, opening his eyes, only to see Taemin already looking at him—eyes still glassy and shining from his tears—Kibum hates that it only makes him look like a doll. He brings his hand to touch his nose then, tracing down and leading his finger to the plump lips in front of him… He presses his finger down onto them gently, feeling the muscle underneath him curl into a smile of its own… Suddenly, chuckling laughter escapes from Taemin’s mouth; his smile grows wide, bearing his teeth and gums, choking out more laughter and squinting his eyes—only pushing out the last of his tears as his entire being floods with the ultimate feeling of satisfaction…

He loves Kibum, and Kibum loves him just the same—he got his fighting chance and won… Kibum has accepted him with open arms. Taemin couldn’t be any happier than he is now, and he continues to laugh even as he feels Kibum pinch his sides, tease him, or kiss him in between bursts of his own laughter too… 

And they continue to kiss each other, all throughout the night, comfortably in Kibum’s bed and tangled in each other's arms—where they plan to find each other as often as they can, for the rest of their lives.

**. . .**

_Kibum sighs, melting into the bed below him as he feels total euphoria wash over him—Taemin’s touch sends chills all over his body, the feeling of his juicy lips wrapped around his hard cock was wet, tight, and just perfect. They quickly fell into each other’s touch and lust the moment they closed their hotel room door, despite their tired bodies and exhausted minds._

_SHINee was currently in Thailand, shooting for the music video for the title track of their 4th full-length album—and their 7th anniversary comeback… All five of the members were enjoying themselves there, the scenery and food was certainly the best part of everything, even the girls too—it almost didn’t feel like work. They were especially enjoying their new concept; everyone had fresh new haircuts and new looks that were surely charming. Kibum especially was drawn to Taemin, falling in love with the look of his lavender locks blending with soft white… seeing him in tanks tops and swimming around didn’t help either, it would only make him want to reach out and touch him each time._

_Taemin doesn’t mind either, and was more than happy when he found out he and Kibum were still going to share a room—something he should have expected by now. He felt a certain bliss when Kibum admired him this way, and he thought things couldn’t get better than being able to touch Kibum however he wanted too… They both touched each other with so much fire. It was so addicting, Taemin jumped on Kibum the second he took his shirt off._

_Kibum was lying on the bed, relaxed and legs a bit spread apart, touching the floor as Taemin bent over him, sucking on him diligently, like he hadn’t eaten anything all day… Kibum held him with both hands, long fingers intertwined within the lavender and snow silky hair in his touch… Taemin moaned at the feeling, and loved how Kibum’s fingers held him tight. His favorite part was all the noises Kibum made—he was moaning out loud, praising him and how well he would move up and down, wet and slick on his hard dick…_

_Taemin was hard himself, starting to leak and unable to contain his desire; he reached around Kibum’s thighs as best as he could in his small hands, squeezing as much milky skin before traveling up, and feeling up on the slim muscle of Kibum’s belly… His body was still as tight as it was for Tokyo Dome, if anything, Taemin thought he was more delicious. It’s why he sucked Kibum up as much as he could, moaning in desperation when he finally realizes he needs more… He wants it so badly._

_He dips up, almost as if he were dancing, popping off of Kibum is one slick movement. Kibum moans loudly, relaxing his grips around Taemin’s soft hair. He opens his eyes to finally look down at the boy unwinding him—Taemin looking more than ravishingly in his wanton hair, face burning red as he pants heavy, lips covered in spit and all dirty like some sort of slut… Kibum can’t contain the whine that escapes him._

_“Hyung, can we do it… please?” Taemin asks, short and sweet, he doesn’t even hesitate at all. He presses his body on top of Kibum, staring down at him with blinking eyes, pleading with his look, needy for what he wants… They’ve been intimate with each other at this closeness for about a year now, after Taemin kept touching Kibum desperately and insisting to go further… It was very hard for Kibum to turn him down after the first time, when he realized Taemin was actually very experienced… and very good. Hand jobs and blow jobs quickly became something they did to each other often, especially overseas like now… but they have yet to actually go the full way._

_Kibum stares back at Taemin with surprised eyes and a heaving chest, both thrown off by the question and exasperated from Taemin’s touch… he almost wants to start freaking out, because he was a bit scared of this coming, he’s not sure if it’s the right thing to do at all, and when he sees the needy sparkle in Taemin’s eye—it only makes his boner twitch… He gulps hard, stalling on giving his answer as he continues to pet Taemin on his head._

_“Do it? Taemin have you ever even had anal before?” Kibum gets straight to the point with his question, spitting out his first concerns aside from the fact that his maknae is finally asking to sleep with him… he’s not sure why he feels so nervous with the way Taemin is eating him up with his eyes, but he’s certain it has something to do with the way Jinki’s voice is creeping on the back of his mind… He starts to get more hot, sweat dripping down his face as he observes Taemin, noticing him smile and nod his head… something he wasn’t quite expecting, if he were going to be honest… He sits up on his elbows, mouth gaping at the boy on top of him._

_“Yes… about three times, all with different people…” Taemin says it shyly, turning away from Kibum a bit as he slides back down his body, just enough to return his touch... He takes a hold of Kibum’s hard dick in his tiny fist once more, giving it a gentle tug before finally looking Kibum back in the eye, “They were all okay… I guess.”_

_“You guess? Ah…” moans out Kibum, who only watches Taemin continue to touch him with caution. He’s sweating a whole lot more now, starting to get overwhelmed with the idea of Taemin inside of him or vice versa… “Were you on top or bottom Tae, why do you say that?” Kibum asks with concern in his voice. Taemin halts his touch, resting his head on Kibum’s belly while he ponders in the question, face burning pink with nerves as this is the first time they’ve talked about all this… Taemin isn’t even sure how to answer._

_“Bottom, every time…” he gulps down hard, blinking quickly when he says it, trying his best to avert his eyes away from the intense stare Kibum looks at him with… He feels like his eyes are burning holes right through him, he wants to just pounce on top of him without permission… have his hyung however he wants. His mind even starts to wander, wondering if Kibum has brought any of his kinky equipment—his mind burning in wild flames when he remembers the harness…_

_“Did it not feel good with them?” Kibum interrupts Taemin’s thoughts, snapping him out of his fantasies when he brings a hand around his slim arm muscles, and pulls him up and on top of him once more—close to his face and finally breaking away from his cock… Kibum brings his full attention to him, and they stare at each other with big eyes and heaving chests… Kibum feels foolish, for some reason he feels like it’s his very first time—despite the fact it isn’t even Taemin’s either… He brings a hand to rest on Taemin’s chin, as his face only burns brighter and he holds his breath thinking of his answer._

_“Not really… and, I guess that’s why I want to do it with you…” Taemin brings his arms up slowly, resting his hands on top of Kibum’s chest, moving his fingers softly on them, feeling the slim muscles and teasing his left nipple… The way Kibum reacts to him makes him moan without warning, and he bites his lip when his desperation returns and his inside scream at him to have sex with the man underneath him. He gulps, moving up to kiss Kibum gently on his lips without warning, “I just know you’ll make it feel good hyung… and I just want to feel good… Please, Kibum… Can we do this, please?” He swallows hard and dips down to kiss Kibum one more time, giving it his all… Kibum only sighs loudly to himself before slowly pushing Taemin up and off of him._

_Kibum bites his lip hard as he storms across the room, going over to his luggage and grabbing a bottle of lube and a condom from inside a backpack… along with it he grabs a mini vibrator—just in case… Taem climbs on top of the bed, sitting outward on his knees as he watches Kibum with curiosity. It feels like his heart is ready to beat out of his chest by the time Kibum takes a towel and places it on the bed, proceeding to lay Taemin on top of it right after… When he does this, he feels loud ringing in his ears, anxiety screaming at him as he climbs on top of Taemin, looking down at him with cautious eyes. He wants nothing more than to be sure to do this right..._

_He puts his hands on Taemin’s figure gently, feeling up on his soft skin, traveling up and down his torso before sliding down to take a hold onto his waist. Kibum gives him a nice squeeze, winning a surprised yelp in response… He does his best to shut out any responsibilities of his now, preferring to listen to the boy’s lustful eyes underneath him instead—especially with how addicting his skin feels and how both their cocks twitch with desire... Kibum reaches down to kiss him once, and then bites him hard on the lip. He’s more than ready to do this now, and he hopes Taemin is to, if this is what he truly wants…_

_“Has anyone ever eaten you, Taeminnie?” he asks in a hushed tone, practically growling into Taemin’s mouth before trailing downwards, placing large and sloppy kisses all over him. It makes Taemin squirm, feeling a bit ticklish at the sensation._

_“Eaten me, hyung?” Taemin asks carefully, swallowing hard and then moaning when he feels Kibum finally take a hold of his hard on… he was already leaking wet, and it makes Kibum smile when he feels the sticky liquid on his fingers , “like a blow job, of course…”_

_“No…” Kibum breathes in instantly, maneuvering down as best as he could until he was completely face to face with his balls… the opening of his anus right there, waiting for him—and Kibum can’t help but lick his lips, pumping Taemin’s shaft even more to make him moan again. “Like, your butt… Has anyone eaten your ass?” He smiles up when he says it, receiving a shy smile in return. Taemin kicks him lightly, giggling to himself and covering his gummy smile with one hand._

_“No…” he takes a deep breath in when he notices Kibum’s smile gets even wider, it disappears after a split second when he dips further down—making Taemin gasp unexpectedly. Right away, Taemin feels Kibum’s large hand gently land on his opening, using two fingers to press on it with caution… It makes him roll his eyes back in a loud moan, already feeling something a bit different and his heart bursting out of his chest when he hears the slight buzzing of the vibrator… Taemin doesn’t dare open his eyes, burning in anticipation and more than ready when he suddenly feels Kibum place the vibrator of the bottom side of his cock, near the top where it’s leaking wet…_

_Taemin yells at the action, thrusting up without meaning too and trembling at the feeling of Kibum’s hand starting to massage him—Taemin’s imagination runs wild in the dark the more shut tight he closes his eyes. He almost starts to beg for more, growing used to the vibrating and now wet groping almost instantly; he was groaning and throwing his head back, mouth wide and practically drooling. Kibum is in love with the filthy and sexy display of art in front of him, and taking a deep breath to finally close in and take a lick out of Taemin’s sweet ass…_

_He dives in, lapping his tongue right on Taemin’s hole, rubbing it back and forth with as much saliva as he can—wetting it as best as he can all over before slowly pushing his tongue in slowly… He can hear Taemin get louder the more he eats, and the wetter he gets… Kibum smiles to himself further, moaning in self satisfaction when he hears a giggle or two slip out of Taemin's mouth along with the pleading... Taemin feels overwhelmed, head-to-toe with magical euphoria; it feels like there’s a million butterflies beating around in his stomach and crotch all at once—the harder Kibum presses down on his mini vibrator as he eats him out, the more ticklish he gets… It's hard for him to keep calm, both his voice and body as he starts to arch his back off the bed, begging louder than before and leaking out more pre-come._

_“Kibum it feels so good already, OH GOD!” Taemin throws one hand onto the bed, clinging both onto the towel and the bed sheets underneath it, and his other hand down, grabbing onto as much of Kibum’s vibrant green hair as he could. He yanks on it, causing Kibum to finally let go of the vibrator—Taemin whines at the loss of buzzing but starts to moan louder the moment Kibum takes both hands to hold his thighs back. He’s pushed back harshly into the bed as Kibum keeps a tight grip on both his legs, spreading him apart as much as he can as he pushes his tongue into him deeper—wetting him even more and more until he’s really dripping._

_“KIBUM, I’M GOING TO COME STOP!” Taemin yells loudly, throwing his head back violently… he doesn’t come, however, as Kibum halts his movement’s right there and then. He lifts his face off slowly, already looking Taemin in the eye with a deeper lust than Taemin has ever seen—and it only makes Taemin feel more desperate. Taemin bites his lip, breathing hard through his nostrils and waiting for Kibum’s next move…_

_“Oh Taemin, you look so good from down here… I wish you could see yourself…” Kibum’s voice is deeper than ever, husky and evil as he moves his face further away from his ass and close to his thigh… he places a soft kiss, and Taemin melts into it—only to tense up the second Kibum’s hand returns onto his opening… “You taste so yummy too, you sound yummy, you’re just so, so…” Kibum reaches over and grabs the bottle of lube left on his side. He opens it quickly, pouring it on his fingers as he places two more kisses… Taemin isn’t even sure he can stop himself from moaning at anything Kibum does to him now, he’s never felt so turned on—all of his senses were on overload and his cock—his ass has never felt so damn good._

_“You are so perfect Taeminnie…” Kibum breathes out, extremely wanton and dirty… Without warning, he shoves two fingers into Taemin’s dripping hole, curling his fingers in and licking at the thigh on his cheek just once more… Taemin arches his back again, lifting up high as he breathes in loud, whining and helpless as Kibum fucks his ass open. “Taemin, God, you look so fucking good…”_

_Kibum moves up in a swift movement, crawling on top of Taemin as high as he could as he continues to maneuver his fingers in and out of the panting mess below him—wanting to continue this beautiful display as long as he could… Taemin moans, groans, makes any noise as Kibum kisses him all over, pushing more of his fingers inside tenderly each time and only fucking him more open the more he goes on. It isn’t long before Kibum even starts to moan himself, unable to contain himself any further as he moves his fingers with growing hunger—slowly wanting more as he melts into Taemin’s moaning melodies._

_“Oh, Taemin…” Kibum breathes out loudly, suddenly sliding his four fingers out of Taemin, earning a loud whine and wide eyes in response. Immediately, he grabs Taemin by the waist and throws him, turning him around completely and laying flat onto the bed with his belly… He keeps his legs spread open, balls and cock resting on the towel below as Kibum takes a grip on the small waist in front of him, positioning himself on top of Taemin... Taemin just crawls up onto his elbows, turning back as much as he can to watch Kibum move on him… he feels Kibum move his hands down, resting them on his ass and kneading his cheeks before spreading them wide open. He moans at the sensation of being spread apart again… he wants the feeling of Kibum’s fingers to return inside…_

_“Hyung…” Taemin tilts his head down, resting his arms down as he looks back up at Kibum with prowling eyes… He isn’t able to continue speaking when he suddenly feels Kibum retrieve the vibrator and shove it into his opening… His heart starts to race faster when he hears Kibum rip open the condom too, gulping in anticipation and turning away no longer able to look. He tries to breathe steady as he takes everything in—everything he feels, what is going on around him, the fact he’s finally having sex with Kibum… For some reason he never thought the day would come, but now he’s here, and he can’t help but grind a bit on the bed, giving himself friction on his cock as he waits for more… As if one cue, Kibum turns the vibrator on, throwing Taemin into a frenzy as it moves inside him..._

_He’s a moaning mess after a minute, practically drooling into the sheets when he finally feels a large hand rest itself on the bottom of his back; he yells when he then feels Kibum pull out the vibrator in one tug, suddenly leaving him empty and bare… Kibum’s hand holds him in place as he brings the head of his wrapped penis onto the open wetness of Taemin’s cute and prepped hole… Taemin takes one giant deep breath, whining Kibum’s name loudly before doing so…_

_“Are you ready Taemin?” Kibum asks, his tone of voice still as husky as ever—he continues to rub the head of his cock, slightly starting to push a bit into Taemin’s hole as he moans loudly, waiting for an answer. Taemin shakes his butt then, back and forth, cute and needy in Kibum grip as he breathes out loudly, crawling back onto his elbows. Kibum wants to just ram into him from the burning look he stares back at him with now…_

_Taemin only nods his head in response to Kibum’s question, trying his best to keep breathing and unable to form any words as his body goes wild in amazing sensations… and when he finally feels the fullness of Kibum’s penis break into his entrance, he sucks in hard and throws his head back—letting out a loud groan the further Kibum slowly pushes his way in, spurring moans of his own. His grip on Taemin only tightens, joined by his other hand the moment he’s balls deep inside—Kibum isn’t sure he can move from the tightness he’s engulfed in now, and isn’t sure how long he’ll last from how good it feels._

_“Taemin you’re so tight, oh shit…” Kibum almost scratches at Taemin as he pushes him down further into the bed, pulling back just to thrust back in, listening closely to the wet sounds they make… Taemin’s moaning is nonstop, even with the littlest of movements—Kibum isn’t sure he’s had sex this good in months… Taemin is making his head spin with the best feelings—he almost doesn’t want this to stop. He’s not sure it can stop after all, when Taemin starts to rut back onto him, making him gasp out at the feeling of him trying to ride his cock from below him._

_Kibum trembles downwards, moving one arm up, and tracing the sweet muscles of Taemin’s back. He continues to feel him up until he takes a grip on the back of his neck, bending forward to lean on top as Taemin continues to grind… Kibum does his best to continue fucking into him, thrusting erratically as he continues to moan loudly, mouth hanging open next to Taemin’s ear. He takes a bite then, pulling Taemin’s cartilage in his mouth with his teeth, giving a gentle tug in order to receive more reactions from Taemin; he proves successful, as he feels Taemin start to rut in a way that he’s surely rubbing against the bed, probably chasing his high with how loud he’s getting... Kibum continues to tug, kissing in between and hearing a yelp without fail each time…_

_When Taemin reaches an arm back, he throws a tight grip onto Kibum’s green hair, pulling his head even closer to him, almost leading him further down into his neck. So, Kibum takes the opportunity to devour Taemin in this new area, and continues to lick and bite him wherever he can reach… He kisses Taemin like he never has before, all over his neck covering him completely despite all the sweat and salty taste… Kibum can’t control himself and even thrusts harder, tightening his grip more as Taemin begins to plead louder, begging him for more—that he feels stars in his tummy…_

_“Please, Kibum, AH—Kibum gosh it’s so good” Taemin pulls at his hair, sucking in his breath deep and trembling, “So so good, Kibummie, it feels so good, please keep going. You make me feel so good Kibum-AH. AH!” He practically lets out a mantra, unable to control himself anymore as his lust and overwhelming euphoria fill his entire being. Kibum even loses his senses, crying out in long, drawn out moans… Without thinking he takes a deep breath, breathing in all of Taemin’s heat and nasty sweat, it makes him dizzy, and with a lick of his lips his bites down—hard._

_He takes a large chunk of Taemin’s neck into his mouth, sucking down and slurping it up like his life depends on it—it sends a rush throughout his body, pounding into Taemin harder as Taemin let’s out his loudest scream yet… This time he throws his head back into Kibum’s, reacting harshly from the strong bite on him. He yells again when Kibum doesn’t let him go, even after he tugs at his hair tighter, rutting faster until he finally feels his release wash over him. In an instant Taemin feels himself explode, and everything turns white as his body bursts out with his climax… He screams out Kibum’s name one last time as he spills his come on the towel below him, and Kibum finally loosens his teeth on the back of his neck, still thrusting and moaning in desperation—he was reaching his climax too._

_Before either of them know it Kibum lets out a loud groan, gripping Taemin tighter than before when he finally reaches his release; he shoves himself deep into Taemin as his lets out his load out into the condom, twitching a bit and using his grip on Taemin to continue to grind on him—milk himself completely until every drop of come escapes his body… When the glory of his total climax reaches an end, he collapses on top of Taemin, panting heavily together as they try to catch their breaths quickly. Taemin breathes in deep with Kibum’s weight heavy on top of him—he blinks to himself quickly, seeing stars in his vision as he comes back down from his orgasmic bliss… He starts to feel light in the stomach, and warm all over his body by the time Kibum finally climbs off of him. He starts to feel nice and fuzzy too, even after Kibum pulls out and leaves him empty and gaping… He relaxes his body completely, allowing his body to practically become putty as Kibum flips him over, using the towel he spilled his seed on to clean whatever else was left on his belly…_

_He stops paying attention to Kibum the more he maneuvers around the room after he climbs off the bed, assuming he’s off cleaning himself or cleaning his things… Taemin sighs into the pillows next to him instead, taking a hold of one of them and hugging around it tightly as he basks in his afterglow—he’s not sure there are words to describe how he’s feeling now, but he feels as though he he’s floating through the clouds… he swears he can almost hear the angels sing too, especially when the touch of Kibum’s long and tender fingers returns on his skin._

_Kibum wakes Taemin a bit, who was relaxed enough to begin to fall into peaceful slumber... He brought a hot towel back into bed with him, and pats it gently on Taemin’s lower back, soothing his muscles and reaching his free hand up to move his purple bangs out of his face… Kibum’s heart sighs in total admiration when he sees Taemin’s beautiful and blissful face—the afterglow on him shining like heaven’s light right at him… He sighs, taking him in before reaching down and kissing him softly… When he finally moves to lie next to him, Taemin turns to face him, letting go of the pillow to hold onto him instead._

_“Taeminnie…” Kibum finally speaks out, resting his forehead gently on the sleepy boy’s in front of him, gently petting the back of his head and breathing in the same air… “How do you feel? Was it nice?” Kibum smiles wide to himself when Taemin only chuckles at him in return—the sweet smile in front of him and the choking laughter is addicting…_

_“Of course hyung…” Taemin laughs once more, closing in closer to Kibum and touching noses. He puckers his lips, pecking Kibum’s sweetly on the lips before continuing, “In case you couldn’t tell, from the hundred thousand times I moaned out just now.” He laughs again, smiling wider as Kibum smacks him gently on the side of his head. He kisses him one more time, “And I was actually able to finish this time, so I was right… I knew you could make me feel good Kibum, and wow I have never felt any better…” Taemin sighs in content, reminiscing on his sex with Kibum as if it happened a long time ago, rather than just moments… He closes his eyes, feeling Kibum’s hand reach down, and rest gently on his neck. He sighs once more, enjoying the way Kibum rubs him there._

_“Really!” Taemin can hear the surprise in Kibum’s voice, but feels too tired to look at him now. Instead, he only nods his head, digging his head deeper into his pillow and sighing once more—slumber greeting him more each minute. He hears Kibum breathe in deep, and exhale loudly, “That surprises me Tae, I’m sorry you’ve had such bad sex…” Kibum says it almost teasingly, but gulps down when he realizes he’s Taemin’s first real and intimate experience with a man (...or at least in the ass). He’s had sex with Taemin now, and he’s sure it won’t be the last time—he’s already counting on more… He continues to soothingly rub Taemin’s neck, and remembers the giant bite he took right behind his fingers, just under his gentle touch… He’s more than certain it’ll leave a mark, and his stomach churns a bit when he realizes his mistake…_

_He doesn’t even bother to mention a word though, swallowing his guilt when he remembers how good he just felt… He thinks that the consequences of whatever hickey may appear on Taemin tomorrow can just be blamed on the models… He sighs to himself, thinking about it, listening in closely as Taemin nods deeper into sleep—his breathing slowing down dramatically and creating a peaceful atmosphere… For some reason, he feels butterflies, and the warmth beating from them only makes his heart beat tender… He’s startled when he sees Taemin fling his eyes open suddenly, his face slowly creeping into a smile as he stares back at him with even warmer eyes…_

_“Taemin?”_

_“I feel so happy right now, Kibum… I swore I was about to fall asleep, but my heart just won’t stop fluttering, I feel so happy… Hyung, my brain won't stop running circles around you right now, you’ve just made me so damn happy!” he bites on his lip, squeezing Kibum in his hold and letting out a burst of giggling… Kibum continues to watch him, allowing the butterflies in his stomach to beat wild and faster as Taemin infects him with laughter. He thinks of what he heard just now, and just puckers his lips down to kiss Taemin with each choking laugh that comes bursting out of his mouth… Taemin is happy, and honestly… Kibum really believes he is too. He kisses Taemin a last time, planting his lips hard and deep, bringing his arm down to take a hold onto his waist tight._

_“You know, I’m happy too...” Kibum breaks away, breathing in slowly from their kiss. He feels Taemin squeeze him again before giving him an eskimo kiss in exchange… Kibum smiles at the action, melts at it actually… Kibum is so happy, he realizes it the more his entire being flutters and beats… Before either of them even know it, they’re on top of the moon, full of admiration and love, and Kibum thinks he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the entire universe, even if it wasn’t the right thing to do…_

_“And I think I’m always happiest too...” he gives Taemin a final squeeze of his own, smiling into his beautiful aura. There’s nothing in any world that’s more perfect, “when I have you like this… entirely by my side…”_

_They both sleep blissfully through the night, and only dream of each other._

* * *

**End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work is dedicated to my good friend Alisha; thank you for making taekey more fun. Happy birthday, I love you!


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